Department of Chemical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is a premier institute of science and technology established in 2008. IITH has been consistently ranked in the&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/reports/" rel="noopener noreferrer">top 10 institutes</a>&nbsp;in India for Engineering&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nirfindia.org/2021/EngineeringRanking.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to NIRF</a>&nbsp;making it one of the most coveted schools for science and technology in the country.

IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/under-graduate/">undergraduate programs</a>&nbsp;in all the classical engineering disciplines, applied sciences, design, as well as several modern interdisciplinary areas. Students are given a flexibility to explore a broad set of areas, and potentially pursue a minor or double major in a discipline that is not their own. Students who wish to seek a deeper understanding of their own discipline are strongly encouraged to get involved in cutting-edge research with the help of a faculty to mentor them, and earn an Honors in their own field.

The very foundation of IIT Hyderabad is based on&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/">research and innovation</a>. The vibrant research culture is evident from the number of patents and publications that IITH produces consistently every year. IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/programmes-offered/">graduate programs</a>&nbsp;at both a masters, and a doctoral level, in several diverse areas. There are separate programs for technology, design, science, and liberal arts. The&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/post-graduate/">MTech program</a>&nbsp;is offered in various modes and durations to cater to the ever-growing need of postgraduate level professionals in the country.

IITH encourages and supports&nbsp;<a href="https://iic-iith.netlify.app/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">innovation and entrepreneurship</a>&nbsp;at every stage. The minor program in entrepreneurship is open to all students of IITH, and many of the courses are offered by industrialists who are entrepreneurs themselves. There are various&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/centres-incubators/">innovation centers and incubators</a>&nbsp;that promote entrepreneurship and help mentor young innovators. IITH has been very successful in building tie-ups with leading academic institutions around the globe.

IITH enjoys a very special relationship with Japanese universities and industries that goes beyond academic and research collaborations. In fact, some of the iconic buildings in IITH campus will carry the signature of Japanese architecture.

IITH creates a unique holistic ecosystem for education that offers interactive learning, a very flexible academic structure, cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration, and entrepreneurship. This is an environment which enables students and faculty to translate their dreams into realities.

IIT Hyderabad

Supported vanadia-alumina and vanadia-titania catalysts with and without molybdena modifier were synthesized, characterized and studied for the propane ODH reaction. In these catalysts the surface molybdena species is present as a non-interacting phase and possesses a much lower activity compared to the surface vanadia species. The propane ODH reaction studies reveal that molybdena modified vanadia catalysts are more active and selective for propene formation compared to the unmodified vanadia catalysts. This promotional effect appears to be due to the increase in propane adsorption in the presence of molybdena as observed by FTIR spectroscopy. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

World University root node

Catalysis Letters

The promotion of vanadia-alumina and vanadia-titania catalysts by surface molybdenum oxide for the propane ODH reaction

Integration of scheduling and control in process manufacturing systems has traditionally resulted in greater coordination between the different layers of hierarchy in optimization and control. However, the effectiveness of this coordination as well as the overall responsiveness of the manufacturing system could be greatly improved if such integration explicitly accounts for parametric variations at each of the layers. This paper proposes an approach to the problem of robust integration of the scheduling and control layers in an uncertainty analysis framework so as to yield robust manufacturing systems that can perform well in the presence of the parametric variations. The uncertainty analysis is performed here using different uncertainty approaches such as the chance constrained programming, fuzzy mathematical programming, and robust optimization. In this paper, we propose to analyze the impact of the uncertainty on the different manufacturing objectives in a multiobjective Pareto sense. The deterministic integrated scheduling and control model taken from published work [Flores-Tlacuahuac, A.; Grossmann, I. E. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2006, 45, 6698] forms the basis of our work toward addressing the uncertainty issues. We demonstrate the development of improved and robust integration of the scheduling and control tasks using the proposed frameworks. © 2010 American Chemical Society.

Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research

Resiliency issues in integration of scheduling and control

This paper presents a theoretical study on the physical interaction between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their clusters of different sizes in laminar premixed flames. Two models are employed for this study: a detailed PAH growth model, referred to as the kinetic Monte Carlo-aromatic site (KMC-ARS) model [Raj et al., Combust. Flame 156 (2009) 896-913]; and a multivariate PAH population balance model, referred to as the PAH-primary particle (PAH-PP) model. Both the models are solved by kinetic Monte Carlo methods. PAH mass spectra are generated using the PAH-PP model, and compared to the experimentally observed spectra for a laminar premixed ethylene flame. The position of the maxima of PAH dimers in the spectra and their concentrations are found to depend strongly on the collision efficiency of PAH coagulation. The variation in the collision efficiency with various flame and PAH parameters is studied to determine the factors on which it may depend. A correlation for the collision efficiency is proposed by comparing the computed and the observed spectra for an ethylene flame. With this correlation, a good agreement between the computed and the observed spectra for a number of laminar premixed ethylene flames is found. © 2009 The Combustion Institute.

Combustion and Flame

A study on the coagulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon clusters to determine their collision efficiency

The photocatalytic inactivation of Escherischia coli and Pichia Pastoris was studied with combustion synthesized titanium dioxide photocatalysts. Three different combustion synthesized (CS) catalysts were used viz., CS-TiO2, 1% Ag substituted in TiO2 and 1% Ag impregnated in TiO2. All the combustion synthesized catalysts showed higher activity as compared to the activity observed with commercial Degussa P-25 TiO2. The effect of various parameters like catalyst loading, different catalysts and initial cell concentration was studied. At the optimum loading, 1% Ag impregnated TiO2 showed the maximum efficiency and complete inactivation of both the microorganisms was observed within an hour of irradiation. The morphology of inactivated cells was studied by inverted microscope and SEM. From the images obtained, it was hypothesized that damage to the cell wall was the main cause of cell inactivation. The initial cell concentration had a prominent effect on the inactivation. At a low initial cell concentration, the complete inactivation of E. coli and P. pastoris was observed within 10 and 20min, respectively. This shows that P. pastoris has a stronger resistance towards photocatalytic inactivation than E. coli. The inactivation reactions were modeled with power law kinetics. The order of reaction in case of E. coli and P. pastoris were determined as 1.20 and 1.08, respectively. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Chemical Engineering Journal

Photocatalytic inactivation of Escherischia coli and Pichia pastoris with combustion synthesized titanium dioxide

Base metal (Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu) substituted CeVO4 compounds were synthesized by the solution combustion technique. These compounds were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and BET surface area analyzer. The characterization indicated that the base metals were substituted in the ionic state in all the compounds. These compounds were used for the photocatalytic degradation of phenol and the degradation rates obtained in the presence of these compounds were compared against that obtained with the commercial Degussa P-25 TiO2 catalyst. Fe and Cr substituted CeVO4 showed photocatalytic activity that was comparable with that of Degussa P-25 TiO2. The concentration of toxic intermediates was high when the reaction was carried out in presence of Degussa P-25 TiO2 but it was found to be insignificant when the reaction was carried out in presence of base metal-substituted CeVO4. The effect of % Fe-substitution (varied from 1 to 5 at%) in CeVO4 on the photocatalytic activity was also investigated and it was observed that 1 at% Fe-substituted compound showed the highest activity. A mathematical model describing the kinetics of the photocatalytic degradation of phenol was developed on the basis of the catalyst structure and taking into account the formation of all the possible intermediates. The variation of the concentration of phenol and the intermediates was described by the model and the reaction rate constants were determined. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Photocatalytic degradation of phenol by base metal-substituted orthovanadates

The water gas shift reaction was carried out over noble metal ion substituted nanocrystalline oxide catalysts with different supports. Spectroscopic studies of the catalysts before and after the reaction showed different surface phenomena occurring over the catalysts. Reaction mechanisms were proposed based upon the surface processes and intermediates formed. The dual site mechanism utilizing the oxide ion vacancies for water dissociation and metal ions for CO adsorption was proposed to describe the kinetics of the reaction over the reducible oxides like CeO2. A mechanism based on the interaction of adsorbed CO and the hydroxyl group was proposed for the reaction over ZrO2. A hybrid mechanism based on oxide ion vacancies and surface hydroxyl groups was proposed for the reaction over TiO2. The deactivation of the catalysts was also found to be support dependent. Kinetic models for both activation and deactivation were proposed. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

AIChE Journal

Support-dependent activity of noble metal substituted oxide catalysts for the water gas shift reaction

We study the pressure-driven, non-isothermal miscible displacement of one fluid by another in a horizontal channel with viscous heating. We solve the continuity, Navier-Stokes, and energy conservation equations coupled to a convective-diffusion equation for the concentration of the more viscous fluid. The viscosity is assumed to depend on the concentration as well as the temperature, while density contrasts are neglected. Our transient numerical simulations demonstrate the development of 'roll-up' of the 'interface' separating the fluids and vortical structures whose intensity increases with the temperature of the invading fluid. This brings about fluid mixing and accelerates the displacement of the fluid originally occupying the channel. Increasing the level of viscous heating gives rise to high-temperature, low-viscosity near-wall regions. The increase in viscous heating retards the propagation of the invading fluid but accelerates the ultimate displacement of the resident fluid. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Chemical Engineering Science

Numerical simulation of non-isothermal pressure-driven miscible channel flow with viscous heating

The solubilities of three chlorophenols, namely, 4-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, in supercritical carbon dioxide were determined at temperatures from (308 to 318) K in the pressure range of (8.8 to 15.6) MPa. The solubilities were determined both in the absence of cosolvents and in the presence of two cosolvents, methanol and acetone. The solubilities (in the absence of cosolvents) in mole fraction of 4-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol at 308 K were in the range of (0.0113 to 0.0215), (0.0312 to 0.0645), and (0.008 to 0.0173), respectively. The solubilities of the chlorophenols followed the order 2,4-dichlorophenol > 4-chlorophenol > phenol > 2,4,6-trichlorophenol > pentachlorophenol. The solubility data were correlated with the Charstil model and with the Mendez-Santiago and Teja model. The overall deviation between the experimental data and the correlated results was less than 6 % in averaged absolute relative deviation (AARD) for both of the models. © 2010 American Chemical Society.

Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data

Solubilities of some chlorophenols in supercritical CO2 in the presence and absence of cosolvents

A simple and novel method to fabricate and miniaturize surface and subsurface microstructures and micropatterns in glassy carbon is proposed and demonstrated. An aqueous resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) sol is employed for micromolding of the master pattern to be replicated, followed by controlled drying and pyrolysis of the gel to reproduce an isotropically shrunk replica in carbon. The miniaturized version of the master pattern thus replicated in carbon is about 1 order of magnitude smaller than original master by repeating three times the above cycle of molding and drying. The microfabrication method proposed will greatly enhance the toolbox for a facile fabrication of a variety of carbon-MEMS and C-microfluidic devices. © 2010 American Chemical Society.

Fulltext

ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

Microfabrication of carbon structures by pattern miniaturization in resorcinol-formaldehyde gel

The transesterification of methyl butyrate, ethyl butyrate and butyl butyrate to geranyl butyrate was investigated in supercritical carbon dioxide. The effect of chain length of the butyrate on the rate of transesterification was investigated. The initial rates followed the trend: ethyl butyrate &lt; butyl butyrate &lt; methyl butyrate. The transesterification of butyl butyrate to geranyl butyrate in various supercritical fluids such as ethylene, methane, ethane was also examined. The initial rate of transesterification of butyl butyrate in different supercritical fluids followed the order: ScCO2 &lt; ScC2H6 &lt; ScC2H4 &lt; ScCH4. The highest initial rate was obtained in supercritical methane and the reasons for this observation were proposed. The Ping-Pong Bi-Bi model with inhibition by both acid and alcohol was used to model the experimental data and determine the kinetics of the reaction. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.