MSc / PhD CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
KPT/JPS(KR 7925)02/12 (MSc)
KPT/JPS(KA 8418)12/12 (PhD)
Ionic Liquids
Ionic Liquids (ILs) are ‘designer solvents’ where we can fine-tune the properties of the ILs, which will allow selection of IL for a variety of different processes such as liquid/liquid extraction and catalysis etc. With the vision to be the centre of excellence in exploitation of ILs for petroleum industry, the highlighted research areas consist of:
- Upgrading of crude oil quality
- CO 2 separation from natural gas
- Waste management, corrosion prevention and HSE (related to ILs and crude oil)
Bio-fuel
The focus of bio-fuel research group is to perform systematic studies on edible and non-edible plants and biomass in synthesizing a new renewable, sustainable and eco-friendly energy and material with technical and commercial viability. The highlighted research areas under bio-fuel include:
- Pyrolysis of biomass into bio-oil
- Synthesis of biodiesel
- Synthesis of bio-alcohols
- Hydrotreating of bio-oil into transportation-grade fuel
- Steam-reforming of bio-oil into hydrogen
- Synthesis and characterization of bio-oil, bio-fuel, bio-lubricant and bio-polymer
- Systematic design of bio-oil upgrading process
- Systematic design of bio-refineries for bio-fuels production
Environment
The focuses of environmental research group consist of industrial wastewater, hazardous waste and air pollution control technologies. The definition of “Sustainable Development” is “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” brings this group to the all research undertaken main objective. That is, to ensure all industrial activities do not pollute the environment and adhere to regulations so that future generations needs will not be compromised. Current research interests involve:
- Advanced oxidation of industrial wastewater
- Biotreatability study of wastewater from refineries or petrochemicals industry
- Industrial wastewater treatment using membranes
- Stabilisation of heavy metals
- Air pollution dispersion modelling
- Removal of heavy metals or sulfides
- Use of nano-particle catalysis wastewater remediation
- Photo catalytic degradation of organics
- H 2-Cl 2 fuel cell for a caustic chlorine plant
Separation
Separation processes deal with the separation and purification of materials based on their physical and chemical properties. It is the key research area under CO 2 management to produce pipeline quality natural gas. Current research interest involves the development of novel technologies and process intensification in the areas of:
- Absorption
- Adsorption
- Membrane
- Cryogenic
Material Development
For material development, special focus is given to novel solvents (ionic liquids), development of novel membrane, selection of solvents for the absorption and development and characterization of adsorbent. These research activities involve experimental studies as well as process modeling. Current research interests involve the development and characterization of:
- Polymer and ceramics membrane
- Absorption s olvent such as amine based and ionic liquid
- Adsorbent such carbon based, zeolite and clay based material
Catalysis
Catalysts need to be synthesized, characterized and evaluated for their catalytic activity. Molecular level modeling and simulation can aid in the design of catalysts. The focus research areas under catalysis include:
- Naphtha reforming, aromatization
- Dry reforming of methane
- Gasification, methanol synthesis, FT synthesis
- Synthesis of nano-catalysts
- Spent catalyst regeneration
Reactor Technology
The reactants and catalysts may not be in one phase. Suitable reactors need to be developed for effective contact between the catalysts and reactants. For this effective development, modeling and simulation of multiphase reactors is a useful tool. The research areas under reactor technology consist of:
- Packed bed reactor
- Moving bed reactor
- Fluidized bed reactor
- Trickle bed reactor
- Slurry bubble column reactor
- Modeling, dynamics and control of reactor
Advanced Process Control
Advanced Process Control has assumed great importance to improve plant efficiency, productivity and profit. It covers areas such as process modeling, on line optimization, multivariable process control, plant wide control and statistical process control. Multivariable process control for gas processing plant, neural network/PLS modeling, metering and dispensing of natural gas, pH control for wastewater treatment and artificial intelligence (AI) application in process control are current areas of research. Current research interests include:
- Megavariate for industry application
- Multivariable process control
- Model predictive control (MPC)
- Inferential techniques and real time optimization (RTO).
Process System Engineering
Increase in the production rate to higher levels is often constrained by the capacity of the process equipment. The operating cost can be reduced by process improvement through better energy integration of the overall process or process debottlenecking. The research within this area mainly focuses on developing or improving design methods, which enables the identification of improvement opportunities in process plants. Methods such as Pinch and Exergy analysis and Mixed Integer linear/nonlinear programming are used in this research area. Current research interests include
- Water minimization in process plant
- Optimum process configuration for gas processing
- Application of systems approach for enhanced grass root process plant design, retrofit of existing process plan and optimum utilization of process plant resources
- Development of methodologies and tools for effective technology transfer for energy efficient processes
Process Safety
Process safety is a critical issue in process industries. It involves the application of inherent safety (in the development of process design options) and development of improved behavior based safety system resources. The example of the process safety research area includes the development of methodology, framework, and software tools for effective transfer of technology for inherently safer process design.
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