Research

Our primary research includes both experimental and computational studies on renewable energy. In our research group, we do experimental pyrolysis (conventional and modified) of lignocellulosic biomass waste and steam reforming of pyrolytic bio-oil focusing on production of hydrogen along with other conventional products. We have developed and patented a novel modified pyrolysis approach, by which one can obtain partially upgraded (de-oxygenated bio-fuel) along with hydrogen-rich syngas in a single step in conventional pyrolytic tubular reactors (i.e., without any additional capital cost and/or operational cost requiring for this modified approach). We also conduct experiments on liquefaction of fruit-waste materials to produce high energy bio-crude. In the recent past, we started working on development of bio-enzymes from food-waste materials so that to use them for extraction of sugars from biomass waste materials. Our computational research includes application of density functional theory (DFT) to obtain kinetics and thermodynamics of several bio-oil upgrading reactions. Further, we also use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approaches to model and simulate different types of conventional and advanced reactors and optimize them along with their operating conditions for bio-aviation fuels production.

Briefly, the following are the list of our research interest: 

• Hydrogen Production from Waste Biomass
• Renewable and Sustainable Energy
• Density Functional Theory Applied to Bio-oil Upgrading
• Computational Transport Phenomena of Multiphase Systems
• Non-Newtonian Fluids and Their Processing