Current Areas of Research

(a)        Thermodynamic and Transport Properties of Liquid Mixtures

(b)        Excess thermodynamic properties

(c)        Prediction of Thermodynamic and Thermoacoustical properties.

(d)        Renewable , New and Non Conventional Energy , WATER ENERGY NEXUS.

SPONSORED PROJECTS / COMPETETIVE GRANTS

UNIVERSITY IMMERSION GRANT IN 2018 (COMPETITIVE GRANT) FOR FULL FUNDING FROM BITS PILANI UNIVERSITY TO SPEND 6-8 WEEKS IN A WORLD CLASS UNIVERSITY.

RESEARCH PROJECT: CSIR, NEW DELHI, INDIA Completed: 30/11/2015

SANCTIONED AMOUNT: 10.5 LAKHS - P I and Sole Investigator

SRCD, BITS GOA INTERIM RESEARCH GRANT – 2020.

2 INTERNATIONAL projects submitted for Approval.

2 Ph.D.’s AWARDED AND ONE ONGOING( SUBMITTING SOON).

COLLABORATIONS:

INTERNATIONAL:

1)      PROF. J A P COUTINHO: Professor, CICECO, University of Aveiro, Portugal

2)      PROF. PEDRO CARVALHO: Researcher, CICECO, Dept of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Portugal.

3)      PROF. MIHAIELA C. STUPARU: Assistant Professor, NTU, Singapore.

NATIONAL:

1)      PROF. SIVAKUMAR KASI: Associate Professor, SV University, Tirupati, India.

2)      DR. TADIKONDI S KRISHNA: Associate Professor, PBS College, Vijayawada, India.

3)      PROF. P V RAO: Associate Professor, Dept of Civil Engineering, NIT Warangal

4)      DR. ANIRBAN ROY: Assistant Professor, Chemical Engg Dept, BITS Goa, India.

5)      PROF. A P MISHRA: Professor and Head, H S Gour University, Sagar, India.

6)      PROF. KRISHNA MISHRA: Emeritus Professor, SGPGI, Lucknow, India.

RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS

STUDENTS

HARDIK HINGORANI AND SHASHWAT VERMA WON THE BITSAA RESEARCH AWARDS.

TADA LAHARI WON THE BEST PAPER PRESENTATION IN APOGEE 2021.

SANYUKTA JAIN PRESENTED HER WORK IN THERMAM 2020 IN GERMANY AND THE WORK WAS PULBISHED IN Journal of Molecular Liquids 333 (2021) 115919.

PIYASHI BISWAS DEVELOPED A VOLUME FRACTION BASED MODEL FOR PREDICTING VISCOSITY ( DEY-BISWAS MODEL) AND THE WORK WAS PRESENTED IN THERMAM 2017 IN ROSTOCK UNIVERSITY, GERMANY AND PUBLISHED. Journal of Molecular Liquids, 265, 356-360 (2018).

PRAVEEN RANGNATH WON THE SECOND PRIZE IN THE  RSC YOUNG RESEARCHERS MEET IN 2018.

 AADITI BASARKAR PRESENTED HER FINDINGS IN 9^TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TECHNICAL THERMODYNAMICS in UNIVERSITY OF ROSTOCK, GERMANY, 2020. 

                                               RESEARCH UNDERWAY

The research work involves prediction of thermodynamic, thermophysical and transport properties of binary (Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics, 156, 106383 (2021) and multicomponent liquid mixtures along with various thermodynamic excess properties. Employing various empirical, semi-empirical relations and statistical mechanical theories, we try to predict various thermophysical (Journal of Molecular Liquids, 333, 115858 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2021.115858;  J. Mol. Liq., 211, 854-867, 2015)   and thermodynamic parameters like isentropic compressibility, β_s, isothermal compressibility, β_T, coefficient of thermal expansion, α, ( Frontiers in Chemistry: Physics Chemistry & Chemical Physics, 10, 868836, 2022. https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2022.868836 ) non- linearity parameter, B/A, etc. Data of pure components is also employed and use is made of various  approaches to predict various thermodynamic parameters like ultrasonic velocity(Indian Journal of Chemistry-A, 57 A, 920-925(2018).), transport properties like viscosity ( Physical Chemistry Research, 9(4), 2021; J. Mol. Liq., 211,686-694, 2015), thermal conductivity, diffusion coefficient and surface tension of binary and multicomponent liquid mixtures (Physical Chemistry Research, 9(4), 2021. ) Along with the prediction of the aforementioned parameters , evaluation of various excess properties(Journal of Molecular Liquids, 299(2020)11221) like excess volume ( J. Mol. Liq., Vol 211,2015) , excess enthalpy( Frontiers in Chemistry: 10, 868836, 2022, J. Mol. Liq: 195,2014) and excess energy is also being carried out.

     Due to the COVID pandemic laboratories have been shut down and therefore the research has been more focused on developing simple yet effective predictive models for thermodynamic and transport properties to give good agreement with the experimental findings with the focus on Ionic Liquids (Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics, 156, 106383 [2021]).) as one of the components, since mixtures with ionic liquids as one of the components are very difficult to model owing to their non-ideal behavior.

A modified form of the Hind Ubbelohde approach has been tested on 150 plus binary, ternary and quaternary liquid mixtures, Journal of Molecular Liquids 333 (2021) 115919.

A Volume fraction based Hind-Ubbelohde modification has been tested on 196 binary, 13 ternary and 5 quaternary mixtures at varying temperatures (Journal of Molecular Liquids 350 (2022) 118526)

§ For the first time, a volume fraction based approach has been developed for predicting viscosity of binary and multicomponent liquid mixtures and has been recently published, Journal of Molecular Liquids, 265, 356-360 (2018).

§ It has been tested on 200 binary, 20 ternary and 5 quaternary mixtures over a wide range of temperature.

§ A New pathway developed for predicting viscosity of binary and multicomponent liquid mixtures was presented at THERMAM 2017 at University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany,17^th- 18^th July,2017.

§ Modified Frenkel approach has been tested on a number of binary and ternary liquid mixtures (RSC Advances, 6,43838-43,2016).

§ Two new simple models developed for predicting viscosity of binary, ternary and higher order liquid mixtures (RSC Advances ,6, 113657–113662, 2016).

§ Transport properties like viscosity (J. Mol. Liq.,211,686-694,2015), thermal conductivity and surface tension of binary and multicomponent liquid mixtures have also been evaluated using various approaches (J. Mol. Liq., 273,165-173,2016).

§ Evaluation of various excess properties like excess volume (J. Mol. Liq., Vol 211,2015), excess enthalpy (J. Mol. Liq: 195,2014) and excess energy is also being carried out.

Theoretical knowledge of thermodynamic, transport, interfacial properties of multicomponent liquid mixtures is essential for studying intermolecular interactions used extensively in applications and engineering design processes associated with various industries.

APPLICATIONS

Theoretical knowledge of ultrasonic velocity, density, refractive index, viscosity, surface tension of multicomponent liquid mixtures is essential for studying thermophysical properties and intermolecular interactions used extensively in applications and engineering design processes associated with various industries. 

Thus, the industry can utilize the database since with addition of each new component, experimental determination of thermodynamic properties for multicomponent systems is tedious, time consuming and very expensive affair. By predicting the various properties and    parameters, we are able to provide the researchers with a database which can be exploited in future by academicians for furthering the cause of science or by entrepreneurs for the benefit of industry.

The aim is to develop some universal equations for predicting thermodynamic,  transport , optical , interfacial and allied properties and to create some simple, novel and modified predictive equations which give improved  Average Absolute Percentage Deviations (AAPD) than the currently existing ones..

Renewable, New and Non-Conventional Energy, WATER-ENERGY NEXUS.

One of the aims is to develop new technologies which will help in Water Energy Nexus (WEN) applications.

Keeping this in mind, recently an investigation has been published based on a Novel approach for Thermodynamic Property Estimation of Low to High Salinities Aqueous Sodium chloride solutions for Water Energy Nexus in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 59 (36), 16029-16042 (2020). (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.iecr.0c02575).

One paper along with co-authors published on Anaerobic Digestion in Renewable Sustainable Energy Reviews (RSER)  in 2010 (14(7),2086-2094 (2010) has more than 350 citations. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032110000936)

He has recently published a book chapter on  BIOECLETROCHEMICAL SYSTEMS: RECENT ADVANCES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS, BIO CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES VOLUME 2(Springer.) (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032110000936). 

With an eye on New technologies, a paper has been published recently entitled “A Comparative Study of biolecletrochemical systems with established anaerobic/ aerobic processes, Ranjan Dey et al, Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-02258-3   (2022).

A study in Wind- Solar Hybrid systems was also undertaken and the findings were published in 2020 as “ Performance Evaluation of Wind - Solar Hybrid System in Indian Context, Springer Nature, doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5955-6_22; (2020).