Seminars

Depleting carbon based energy resources and shortage of energy due to ever increasing demand is driving the research towards sustainable renewable energy sources. Coupled with this problem is the increasing generation of waste. Treatment of waste has become the central problem of our age as conventional methods of waste disposal such as landfills ocean dumps and incinerators are becoming less and less viable. Thermal plasma technology is emerging as a game changing technology to address these problems.

Depleting carbon based energy resources and shortage of energy due to ever increasing demand is driving the research towards sustainable renewable energy sources. Coupled with this problem is the increasing generation of waste. Treatment of waste has become the central problem of our age as conventional methods of waste disposal such as landfills ocean dumps and incinerators are becoming less and less viable. Thermal plasma technology is emerging as a game changing technology to address these problems.

Abstract: Diminishing fossil fuels and increase in the demands of energy worldwide has led to the subsequent development of innovative technologies for sustainable energy supply. Some of the key technologies which can play a major role in this context include; the conversion of biomass into fuels and chemicals and the development of fuel cells for the efficient conversion of chemical energy into electrical energy.

Abstract : The advent of high-speed computers has brought about a great change in the pace of development of new chemical engineering processes making Computer aided design and simulation as one of the frontier areas of research. The applications include conceptual design and feasibility study of novel processes techno-economic analysis of different process pathways exploration of energy- efficiency measures in process plants etc.

 Spray drying is used for the manufacture of many products including ceramics foods and detergents. Historically these processes and product properties have been optimized empirically. As engineers we would like to be able to predictably design spray dried products to engineer the required product properties to do this we require a set of models capable of capturing formulation - process -- structure - property relationships. Spray drying is an incredibly complex process and we are still along way from the required set of multiple multi-scale models.

Reactive Distillation (RD) an integration of reaction and separation processes in a single unit has already been proven to have various advantages over conventional process of reaction followed by distillation for many reactions. In the present work advanced applications and configurations of reactive distillation for various esterification reactions are explored and investigated.

Abstract: Understanding the charging behaviour of a conducting polymer is important from the point of view of its use as a charge storage device. Potentiodynamic techniques such as step- pulse- or cyclic-voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy are some common techniques employed for the study of charging dynamics of conducting polymer films. Since the charging process involves several coupled dynamical steps the overall dynamics becomes so complex that decoupling of the overall processes into individual steps is very difficult and can often be ambiguous.

Abstract: As demands on cleaner environment and sustainability increase the Indian plastics industry will have to focus on the production andprocessing of environmentally benign polymers. Development of such plastics requires a deeper understanding of the intricate relations between the structure and topology of macromolecules and their processing behavior and properties. A significant scientific challenge here is to be able to connect physical phenomena that occur over several orders of magnitudes of length and time scales.

Abstract: We present a theoretical model which elucidates the physical principles involved in the formation of very uniform $CdS$ nanocylinders of different radii by combining the physics of flow diffusion self assembly and aggregation of constituent particles. Very recent experiments report that when $0.1$ M solutions of $CdCl_2$ and $Na_2 S$ were allowed to mix through some anodised alumunium oxide (AAO) nanochannels one observes the growth of an array of $CdS$ nano-cylinders on only one end of the AAO template [A. Varghese and S. Datta Phys. Rev. E . {\bf 85} 056104 (2012)].

Colloidal dispersion play a substantial role in a wide range of natural and technologically important products used frequently in our daily life. These range from personal care products like shampoos tooth paste etc.; health care products like ointments syrups etc.; Food products like milk chocolates ice-creams mayonnaise etc.; and also paints.  Most of these materials are viscoelastic and are known as soft solids/soft matter.