Prof. Mihir Kumar Purkait

Professor

Key Research Areas :Membrane technology; Effluent treatment and waste management; Advanced separation processes; Catalysis; Nanoparticles and nano-composites; Bio-diesel; Bio-products, vegetable and fruit juice processing; CO2 to products and liquid fuels.

  • Phone No: +91 361 258 2262/+91 99542 48807
  • Email: mihir@iitg.ac.in
  • Room No: 105
Personal Webpage Download CV

Dr. Mihir Kumar Purkait is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG). Presently he is holding Professor Chair of National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM), Min. of Jal Shakti (Govt. of India)He is energetically involved in frontier areas of Chemical Engineering with his major research interest in the field of advanced separation processes and material science.

Prof. Purkait has a portfolio of multifarious innovations and inventions in both fundamental and applied research. He has made an outstanding contribution to develop the fundamental concept and mechanism of smart and intelligent responsive materials (thermo-responsive, pH-responsive, dual / multi stimuli-responsive, and piezoelectric) for a wide range of separation applications. He has the credit for commercializing various technologies for up and downstream operation of water purification, many water treatment technologies for contaminated drinking water and industrial wastewater, bio-separation, value-added product separation from plant and agricultural resources, and electrochemical reduction of COto several liquid fuels. His major research areas and output in terms of the number of publications are shown below.

Prof. Purkait has done outstanding contribution in translational and applied research on two major sustainable development goals, SDGs (SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation; SDG 9: Industry and Innovation; SDG 12: Production). Quality and quantity of his research is reflected in terms of large number of publications, patents, technology transfer, start-ups, projects, consultancies and involvement with various national and international scientific committees. His work has remarkable relevance in societal as well as industrial sectors.

He has more than 23 years of experience in research & academics. With his research team he has published more than 300 high quality International journal papers with h-index of 71 (citation > 16,000), 14 granted patents and made 3 technology transfer. He has authored 18 books, completed 42 sponsored projects/consultancies funded by various Govt agencies and industries. Prof. Purkait has supervised 24 PhD students and >40 M Tech students on fundamental and applied research.

For his scientific and societal contribution, he has been awarded several national level prestigious award from INAE, NASI, INSA, DST etc. He has worked as visiting professor of 3 foreign universities and involved in various international scientific/funding organizations as ECC/PAC expert member like European Science Foundation (ESF, France), Fund for Scientific Research; FWO Flanders, Brussel (Belgium) etc.

Prof. Purkait is also actively involved in different capacity like ECC / EC / PAC / selection committee member / advisor / consultant etc in various Govt (state & central) bodies including DST, SERB, DBT, AICTE, IITs, NITs, Universities, Waste to Wealth (W2W) mission and National Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Govt of India and public sector companies.


Dr. Mihir Kumar Purkait 
Dean of Alumni and External Relations
Chair Professor, National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM), Min. of Jal Shakti (Govt. of India)
Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Guwahati - 781039, Assam, India
E. Mail: mihir@iitg.ac.in ,  mihirpurkait@gmail.com
Phone: +91-361-2582262(O),  +91 - 9954248807 (Mobile)

Homepage: https://www.iitg.ac.in/chemeng/faculty_profile.php?name=mkp
Google Scholar Citation:  https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=9Z4kD-sAAAAJ&hl=en

Patents

  • B. Prem Kumar, R. Uppaluri, D.S. De, M.K. Purkait, Surfactant composition and method for enhanced oil recovery utilizing above aqueous surfactant composition. Application Number: 597/KOL/2007. Date of Filing: 18/04/2007. Indian Patent No. 245703, Granted on 04/02/2011.
  • Vijaykumar L. Dhadge, Chitta Ranjan Medhi and Mihir Kumar Purkait, Apparatus and method for removal of fluoride, iron, arsenic and microorganism from contaminated drinking water. Application Number: 481/KOL/2010. Date of Filing: 29/04/2010. Indian Patent No. 286481, Granted on 21/08/2017.
  • Vijaykumar L. Dhadge and Mihir Kumar Purkait, Production of catechins from natural sources using membrane based technology. Application Number: 240/KOL/2010. Date of Filing: 11/03/2010. Indian Patent No. 291190. Granted on 29/12/2017. 
  • Vijaykumar L. Dhadge and Mihir Kumar Purkait, Formulations containing Catechin flavonoids mixture produced by membrane separation technology, Application Number: 840/KOL/2010. Date of filing: 30/7/2010. Indian Patent No. 296935, Granted on 21/05/2018.
  • P. Biswas, V.K. Chandaliya, P.K. Banerjee, C. Das, M.K. Purkait, " A fabrication process to produce defect-free inorganic ultrafiltration range ceramic membrane device, Application Number: 725/KOL/2010. Date of filing: 02/07/2010. Indian Patent No. 345860, Granted on 01/09/2020.
  • P K Saha, M K Purkait, A B Paul, R Saikia, Anweshan, J K Deka, S K Saikia, Apparatus/System for electrolytic treatment of water, India Patent Application No. 201831027259. Date of filing: 20/07/2018. Indian Patent No. 347762, Granted on 25/09/2020.
  • M K Purkait, Deepti, A Sinha, P. Biswas, S Sarkar,  “Separation of ions from rejected stream of industrial wastewater”, Application Number: 201831044754. Date of filing: 27/11/2018. Indian Patent No. 358357, Granted on 11/02/2021
  • A Sinha, P. Biswas, S Sarkar, M Changmai, M K Purkait, A ceramic membrane, A process of preparation and application thereof. Patent Application No: 201831041890. Date of filing: 05/11/2018. Indian Patent No. 363544, Granted on 30/03/2021.
  • P Mandal, M K Purkait, Aromatic carbon coated iron aluminium nanocomposite and its green synthetic process. Patent Application No. 202031047652, Date of filing: 01/11/2020. Indian Patent No. 385299, Granted on 28/12/2021.
  • M K Purkait, Somnath Chanda, P Mandal, Process for preparation of high surface area activated carbon by using waste tea leaves. Patent Application No. 202131062319 (TEMP/E-1/70593/2021-KOL), Date of filing: 31/12/2021. (1st FER submitted). 
  • M K Purkait, Deepti, Removal of Chromium from Linz-Donawitz slag, Patent Application No. 202231007598 (TEMP/E-1/8706/2022-KOL), Date of filing: 13/02/2022. (1st FER submitted).
  • P Mandal, M K Purkait, Green technique for preparing iron nanoparticles embedded polymeric membrane. Patent Application No. 202231018062 (TEMP/E-1/20234/2022-KOL), Date of filing: 28/03/2022