Personal Profile

Prof. Pradip Kumar Tewari is a Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) Professor Chair in Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Jodhpur, with extensive experience and expertise in water, energy and environment. He is co-chair of the task-force on Jodhpur Hydrogen Valley Innovation Cluster for demonstrating total value chain of green hydrogen from production to dissipation and utilization. He was founder Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering in IIT Jodhpur. Earlier, he was a distinguished scientist Associate Director in Chemical Engineering Group of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and a renowned Professor affiliated with Home Bhabha National Institute (HBNI). He is recognised for his strong leadership qualities and adeptness in seamlessly executing large scale projects from conception to successful completion. Prof. Tewari is responsible for development of several first-of-its-kinds technologies. He was Ramanna Research Fellow in BARC and consultant to the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India on ‘Water Issues’. He has guided several Ph.D. and graduate students. He is consultant and advisor to several government bodies and organisations such as DRDO, DDWS, ONGC, BIS, CPCB, CMWSSB, DST etc. Prof. Tewari received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. He has a strong international presence and was Chairman of International Nuclear Desalination Advisory Group (Vienna, Austria) from 2005 to 2015. He is Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) and Indian Chemical Society (ICS). He was Vice President of Asia Pacific Desalination Association (APDA) and President of Indian Desalination Association. Prof. Tewari has more than 175 research publications in peer reviewed journals, proceedings, books and encyclopedia. He has authored two books on (i) ‘Nano-composite Membrane Technology'; and 'Advanced Water Treatment'; published by CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group (USA). He has two patents to his credit. He was a member of the editorial board of several peer reviewed journals. He  has earned numerous accolades and is recipient of many awards and felicitations.

Path Breaking Contributions

Prof Tewari provided expert technological support and guidance has been provided to Defence Laboratory

Jodhpur (DLJ) for the development of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) Water 

Purification System. The system was found to be extremely useful by Army for meeting the requirements 

of the units deployed at HA forward area. The first prototype has been handed over to them for use by the

 engineer units for providing purified potable water for the troops.

He made path breaking scientific contributions in nuclear desalination. As Head Desalination Division 

(DD) in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), he gave a new orientation to research program with 

strong emphasis on corporate like R&D on indigenous water technologies. As a result, several water 

purification technologies were developed and transferred to many parties and entrepreneurs for deployment 

in a commercially viable manner, thus establishing a business model for sustainability. As Distinguished 

Scientist and Associate Director of Chemical Engineering Group, the culture of technological innovation 

was given top priority in strategic areas and technology incubation and transfer for societal areas.

As Project Coordinator, the design, construction and commissioning of world’s largest hybrid nuclear 

desalination plant of 6.3 Million Litres per Day (MLD) capacity coupled to Madras Atomic Power Station 

at Kalpakkam (India) for sea water desalination was carried out for producing two qualities of water 

(i) distilled quality water for high end uses such as demineralized water in power plants and (ii) potable 

quality water for general use in the area. The development work on nuclear desalination has demonstrated 

to the international community that India leads the world in nuclear desalination and is the only country 

having valuable experience in different types of isolation loops between nuclear reactor and desalination 

plant.

Prof. Tewari conceived the idea of nuclear waste heat utilization and development of low temperature 

evaporation (LTE) based desalination technology and isolation loop for utilizing nuclear waste heat for 

seawater desalination and its integration to the nuclear research reactor for producing distilled water from 

seawater, was successfully demonstrated.

His research work on enhanced nucleate boiling in a thin film on horizontal tube has led to development of 

high-performance Horizontal Tube Thin Film (HTTF) Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) technology operating 

at sub-atmospheric pressures leading to installation of several MED type sea water desalination plants.

The work on development & application of membrane technology led to development of radiation and 

chemical resistant membranes, capillary membrane module, membrane systems for selective separation, 

advanced systems for desalination and effluent treatment.

Technical support and guidance provided by him to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) under office of Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India has led to the decision of upgrading conventional water coolers with the indigenous Ultra-Filtration (UF) based water coolers throughout the entire track and Bhawan area of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine for providing clean and safe drinking water to devotees. 

Technical Consultancy

Technical consultancy/ advice to several national and international organizations such as Department of 

Drinking Water Supply (Ministry of Jal Shsakti), Defence Research & Development Organisation

 (DRDO), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS), Bharat Heavy 

Electricals Limited (BHEL), Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewage Board (CMWSSB), National Institute

 of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Bharat Petroleum, Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), 

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) etc has been/ is being

 provided on total water solution,  desalination, water reuse and water purification.

Intellectual property, technological innovations, new products

       I. Indian Patent Number 343289 entitled ‘Nanofiltration Membranes with Surface Negative Charge for 

Fractional Separation of Mono- and Multi-valent Ionic Species’

     II.  Indian Patent Number 308260 entitled ‘Charged Thin Film Composite Nanofiltration Membrane and 

Process of its Production’ 

    III.  Following technologies/ products developed as a Team were licensed to private parties/ entrepreneurs on 

non-exclusive basis (While in BARC through TTCD):

1. On-line domestic water purifier based on ultra-filtration (UF) poly-sulfone membrane

2. UF membrane assisted device for removal of iron from contaminated water for drinking purposes

3. Membrane assisted defluoridation process for safe drinking water

4. Arsenic removal from drinking water by physico-chemical process

5. Dip-n-Drink

6. Fresh water generator

7. Back-washable spiral UF technology for domestic and industrial water purification

8. Solar energy driven portable domestic brackish water RO technology

9. Solar PV driven UF unit

10. Preparation of composite polyamide RO membrane for brackish water desalination

11. Charged Nano-Filtration (NF) membrane

12. Nano-composite UF membrane