Dr Dhairya Mehta

Title: Adaptive first principles based approach for unlocking value from mature technologies

Abstract: There is a constant need to meet increasing energy demands whilst continuing to reduce the carbon emissions and adhere to ever-stringent environment regulations. This troika of more energy, lower carbon intensity and minimal emissions can be difficult to navigate for an operating asset. Newer technology solutions promise to fundamentally challenge the basis of this trade-off however, they need time, resources and risk appetite. In this conversation, I aim to delve deeper in to how we can unlock value for existing operations now by leveraging fundamental knowledge. We will explore chemical reaction engineering principles with an example to showcase the application of kinetics to design of commercial-scale reactor where we need to predict effluent concentrations with high accuracy.

In parallel, I will invoke the concept of ‘building your mosaic’ which was introduced by late Professor W. Nicholas Delgass and how building a diverse knowledge repository can support adaptive application of fundamental principles towards evolving objectives.

 

Dr Senthil Kumar V

Title: Data Reconciliation for Sensor Health Diagnostics and Soft Sensing

Abstract: The talk would be an overview of the basics of data reconciliation, its industrial applications and advanced methods available for practice.

 

Prof. Yagnaseni Roy

Title: Energy-efficient and Sustainable Separation Solutions

Abstract: Chemical separation steps are an important set of processes involved in the manufacture of items that are critical in our daily lives, such as plastics, paper, pharmaceuticals, soaps and detergents, textiles, and many more. These chemical separations and the concerned separation technologies are responsible for several important processes, such as extracting the final product from the synthesis medium; treating effluent streams before environmental discharge; recovering materials that can be reused for subsequent manufacture cycles; or isolating valuable intermediate products that can be used in a different industry, or sold. Typically, chemical separations account for 40-70% of the total cost of the complete manufacture process of the item. Cumulatively, separations in various industries add up to 15% of the world’s energy requirements.

In the Sustainable Separation Solutions Laboratory (S3), our focus is on the design of techno-economically optimized separation systems for real-world problems. Our work includes the exploration of hybrid and alternative technologies for the application, inter-species selectivity in the studied technologies, system-level cost and thermodynamic evaluation, as well as the integration of the separation technologies with the other steps in the product synthesis pathway. In the current talk, I will cover the ongoing work in the S3 group in relation to solvent recovery; two membrane-technologies, namely pervaporation and nanofiltration are used for solvent recovery applications in two distinct solvent recovery applications. In the first application, pervaporation is used to separate solvents that form an azeotropic mixture, and the systems investigated are motivated by practical cases in the pharmaceuticals industry. The talk will cover the simulation method developed for pervaporation as well as the experimental method established in the lab. The second application involves the simultaneous isolation of the phytochemical, curcumin, and the recovery of the solvent used in extracting curcumin from the raw turmeric; the technology used is nanofiltration, and a combined simulation and experimental strategy is developed for the analysis of this application.

Finally, I will provide an overview of new applications being investigated in the group, which includes diversification into gas-separation applications, as well as heavy metal removal from groundwater.

 

Prof. Shashi Thutupalli

Title: Two-component molecular motor driven by a GTPase cycle

Abstract: ATPases are a group of enzymes that can cyclically convert the free energy of ATP hydrolysis into mechanical work. GTPases are another class of enzymes that are predominantly associated with signal transduction processes, but their role in mechanotransduction is less established. It was previously shown that the binding of the GTPase Rab5 to the tethering protein EEA1 induces a large conformational change in EEA1 from a rigid, extended to a flexible, collapsed state. This entropic collapse of EEA1 gives rise to an effective force that can pull tethered membranes closer. It currently remains unclear if EEA1 can return from the collapsed to the extended conformation without the aid of chaperone proteins. Here we show that EEA1 in a bulk solution can undergo multiple flexibility transition cycles driven by the energetics of Rab5 binding and unbinding as well as GTP hydrolysis. Each cycle can perform up to 20 kBT of mechanical work.

Hence, Rab5 and EEA1 constitute a two-component molecular motor driven by the chemical energy derived from the Rab5 GTPase cycle. We conclude that tethering proteins and their small GTPase partners can have active mechanical roles in membrane trafficking.

 

Dr Vinay Kariwala

Title: High-Fidelity Simulation of Multi-Phase Systems

Abstract: Multi-phase systems are widely encountered in process industries, ranging from fluidized catalytic reaction, spray coolers and boilers. This talk will provide an overview of tools for high-fidelity simulation of such multi-phase systems, which are being developed at SankhyaSutra Labs.

 

Prof. Ratul Dasgupta

Title: Formation of a jet from a deformed air-water interface

Abstract: Jet formation from the natural relaxation of a severely deformed, air-water interface is known in several flow situations. For example, when a (air) bubble rising buoyantly in water approaches the air-water interface, it may coalesce and float. As the bubble cap (dome) ruptures, a cavity is naturally generated at the interface. For a range of sizes, the relaxation of this cavity is accompanied by the convergence of capillary waves towards the cavity bottom, thereby ejecting a jet (MacIntyre, 1972, J. Geophys. Res.). Several droplets may be emitted from the jet tip ranging in size from about 1-100 microns. This process is considered influential in the open ocean where breaking of wind-driven surface waves inject air bubbles continuously into the upper ocean layer, and ultimately causing ejection of saline droplets into the atmosphere. In a different context, similar jets have also been observed in overdriven Faraday waves (Longuet-Higgins, J. Fluid Mech. 1983, Zeff et al, Nature Comm., 2000) where too, focussing of flow leads to ejection of an intense jet at the centre of the container.

In this talk, I will demonstrate that similar jets may be observed from large amplitude, modal distortion of an air-water interface in a cylindrical container (free oscillations). Such a modal distortion, produces a simple standing wave at small amplitude but gives way to a sharp jet at the centre of the container, when the amplitude is sufficiently large. Due to the simplicity of the initial condition, we can formulate a weakly nonlinear theory to understand the formation of this jet, in the pure capillary, pure gravity and the capillary-gravity regime. It will be seen from this analysis that jet formation coincides with constructive interference of several (Bessel) modes, generated non-linearly. It will also be seen that flow focussing, analogous to the above, is also observed in this situation. Simulations supporting theoretical arguments will be demonstrated.