“Hydrocarbon biofuels and building-block chemicals are essential for sustainability.”

Our research is focused on producing biofuels and bio-based chemicals using the chemo-catalytic approach. The major thrusts are understanding the reaction mechanism and structure-catalytic activity correlation. We also carry out techno-economic and profitability analyses to evaluate their commercial potential.

Research Areas

1. Hydrocarbon biofuels: Hydrodeoxygenation of vegetable oil, fatty acid, biofuel precursors, etc., in the presence of hydrogen and supported metal catalysts produces hydrocarbon biofuels, which are compatible with current combustion engines.

2. Synthesis gas: Reducible oxides, such as CeO2–ZrO2, are important catalyst carriers to improve catalyst stability during the steam reforming reaction

3. Pinch technology: : Energy is one of the main operating costs in a chemical process. Process integration using pinch technology is vital to improve the thermal efficiency of a process.

4. Techno-economic analysis: Techno-economic and profitability analysis is vital to evaluate the critical economic barriers in the way of commercialization.