Profile

My field of research has been related to sustainable energy and biomass conversion to value added chemicals using Thermo-chemical processes. As a PhD student in Department of Chemical Engineering at Shiv Nadar University, I have worked on air and steam gasification of different types of waste (Rice Husk, Groundnut Shell Powder and Kitchen Food waste) using pilot scale fluidized bed gasifier and lab scale fixed bed gasifier. For mixed food waste from kitchen, being a wet biomass, needed some kind of pretreatment prior to its use as biomass in gasification. Therefore, torrefaction was carried out to improve it’s physico-chemical properties. My PhD work mainly involved the production of syngas using gasification with and without pretreatment of food waste. In the initial phase of my PhD, I worked on groundnut shell gasification performance in a pilot scale fluidized bed gasifier with bubbling air as gasification medium. Later, food waste from kitchen was taken up and it was evaluated for the physico-chemical development of kitchen food waste through torrefaction first and then its gasification using steam as gasifying agent to produce hydrogen rich. Finally, the enhancement in gasification performance of food waste with torrefaction as pretreatment was studied. All these works were published in reputed journals.

Prior to my PhD, I have done my M.Tech project also on thermochemical conversion of biomass, where I worked on “Air gasification of rice husk in bubbling fluidized bed reactor with bed heating by conventional charcoal”. Carrying out research in the same area during my M.Tech and PhD degrees has helped me to evolve a good researcher and enhance my knowledge in this field of thermochemical conversion of biomass. I would like to continue working on the wet biomass including food waste and other wet industrial wastes.