| Chemical Engineering
URFC: Unitized regenerative fuel cells can be a paradigm shift in energy conversion and storage because of their scalability and high round trip efficiency."
My research interests are primarily focused on electrochemical devices and heterogeneous catalysis. Specifically, our research is focused on the development and characterization of unitized regenerative fuel cells for energy conversion and storage. When it comes to heterogeneous catalysis, our research aims to develop micro-kinetic and mechanistic models for various reaction systems.
1. HT-PEMFC: We prepare MEA’s for HT-PEMFCs. The main focus of the research is the the reduction of Pt loading in the catalyst layer by optimizing the catalyst ink composition and by trying different support materials.
2. HT-PEMWE: The main challenge in the anode catalyst, which undergoes corrosion at the cell potentials. We work towards circumventing this problem by using Pt-X/MWCNT and Pt/Conducting polymers.
3. Kinetic models: Reliable kinetic models are vital for reactor design and scale-up. We work on the development of kinetic models for various applications. The models include micro-kinetic model as well as mechanistic kinetic models.
4. Julia package: A free-to-use Julia package for reacting flow simulations. Rich library: thermochemistry, gas-phase and surface kinetics, transport properties. Applications: Batch, Plug, CSTR, Surface coverage, Multicomponent equilibrium etc.
1. Prakash V. Ponugoti, Priya Pathmanathan, Jyotsna Rapolu, A. Gomathi, Vinod M. Janardhanan, On the stability of Ni/γ-Al2O3 catalyst and the effect of H2O and O2 during biogas reforming, Appl. Catal. A 651, 119033 (2023)
2. Prakash V. Ponugoti, Pritesh Garg, Sanjana N. Geddam, Samik Nag, Vinod M. Janardhanan*, Kinetics of iron oxide reduction using CO: Experiments and modeling, Chem. Eng. J 434, 134384 (2022)
3. Anusree Unnikrishnan, N Rajalakshmi, Vinod M. Janardhanan*, Kinetics of electrochemical charge transfer in HT-PEM fuel cells, Electrochim. Acta , 293, 128-140 (2019)