Khanal is a leading researcher in the field of anaerobic digestion, bioenergy, waste-to-resources and environmental biotechnology. He has published more than 90 papers in high quality international journals. In addition, he published the book, Anaerobic Biotechnology for Bioenergy Production: Principles and Applications, which was a best seller in 2008. He also recently published a bioenergy textbook, Bioenergy: Principles and Applications. He has supervised 13 PhD, 17 masters, 17 undergraduate and 12 high school students, 13 postdocs and 14 visiting scholars. Khanal is an associate editor of Bioresource Technology. He was a recipient of the CTAHR Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2016.