Jitendra Sangwai, Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras

Department of Chemical Engineering

Earth, Energy & Environmental Engineering Group

Dr. JITENDRA SANGWAI

Professor

🕿 +91 44 2257 4825 (O)

📧 jitendrasangwai[at]iitm.ac.in; jitendrasangwai[at]gmail.com

🡆 Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India 600036

🡆 Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Carbon Dioxide Capture, Utilisation and Storage

🡆 Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Subsurface Mechanics and Geo-Energy

🡆 Petroleum Engineering Program, IIT Madras

Directions

Room 349, NAC-1(KCB), IIT Madras.

Dr. Jitendra Sangwai is currently working as a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India. He obtained M. Tech. (2001) and Ph. D. (2007) in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur and IIT Kanpur, respectively. He worked with Schlumberger dealing with flow assurances issues and on several commercial projects. As of 2025, he is having more than 21 years of professional experience. He has published several papers in international journals and conferences of international repute. He has filed/holds 15 patents in the field of gas hydrate, enhanced oil recovery, and flow assurance.

Awards and Honour

Fellow, Indian National Academy of Engineering (FNAE), 2024
Associate Editor, Energy and Fuels (ACS Journal, with Impact factor of 5.3, since July 2023)
National Geoscience Award from the Government of India - 2019 for outstanding contributions in oil, natural gas, and gas hydrates (declared in June, 2022).
Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Regional Technical Award - Sustainability and Stewardship in the Oil and Gas Industry for South Asia & the Pacific Region, 2022.
Top 3% Highly Cited ACS Authors (for all ACS journals) from India by the American Chemical Society for the period (2019 and 2020).
Institute Research & Development Award - Mid Career, IIT Madras, 2021.
Bhagyalakshmi and Krishna Ayengar Award of IIT Madras for having guided the best PhD thesis.
National Award for Technology Innovation from the Government of India, 2016 and 2018 (three awards in total).
Two 'Top 25 Most Cited Articles' published in Energy & Fuels, 2019.
The Highly Cited Author award from the Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research (ACS Journal), 2020.
One among '25 Emerging Investigators’ recognition by the American Chemical Society’s Journal, American Chemical Society, 2018.
Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty in the South Asia and the Pacific region by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
Early and Mid-Career Research (EMCR) Fellowship Award offered jointly by Indian National Science Academy and the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India
Institute Research & Development Award - Early Career, IIT Madras 2017.
Young Faculty Recognition Award, IIT Madras, 2014.

The '3E' Lab (Earth-Energy-Environment Engineering Group) focuses on understanding the nexus between Earth, energy and environment. Energy transition will not be abrupt but slow till we find sustainable energy resources for the mankind. In view of increasing global warming and CO2 emissions, immediate actions are required to address these issues, which may involve capturing large amount of anthropogenic CO2 directly from air (DAC) or from flue gases and storing it in geological and oceanic repositories. In terrestrial storage sites, CO2 can be stored in saline aquifers, basalt formations, and in depleted oil and gas reservoirs. Depleted oil and gas reservoir offers promising place to store CO2 as the existing infrastructure can be utilized to store large amount of CO2 and also to produce oil (enhanced oil recovery). On the other hand, oceanic sequestration holds great potential for long-term CO2 storage beneath the seabed, supporting the broader scientific and industrial community in achieving carbon neutrality. However, several key factors at the macroscopic and microscopic levels are essential in realizing the full potential of carbon capture and sequestration processes. Consequently, there exists a broad scope for discourse in this field that will drive the development of future technological innovations in the years to come. Our group at IIT Madras currently focuses on understanding the impact of CO2 emissions on the environment and its mitigation by developing efficient strategies for carbon capture, utilization, storage and sequestration into geological and oceanic repositories, thereby trying to maintain the balance between Earth-Energy-Environment.

Research Interest

Carbon Capture, Utilization and Sequestration (CCUS)
CO2 Storage in Geological Formations (Onshore/Offshore)
CO2 Capture from Flue Gases and Direct Air Capture
Gas Hydrates (Resources, Flow Assurance, Technology)
Upstream Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering
Solid adsorbents for CO2 capture
Nanotechnology for Sustainable Energy Transition

Selected Recent Publications

[1] Jha NK, Lebedev M, Iglauer S, Ali M, Roshan H, Barifcani A, Sangwai JS*, Sarmadivaleh M. Pore scale investigation of low salinity surfactant nanofluid injection into oil saturated sandstone via X-ray micro-tomography. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. 2020, 562, 370-380. Impact factor:8.13.

[2] Kakati A, Kumar G, Sangwai JS*. Low salinity polymer flooding: Effect on polymer rheology, injectivity, retention and oil recovery efficiency. Energy & Fuels. 2020, 34, 5715-5732. Impact factor: 3.61.

[3] Bhawangirkar DR, Sangwai JS*. Insights into cage occupancies during gas exchange in CH4+CO2 and CH4+N2+CO2 mixed hydrate systems relevant for methane gas recovery and carbon dioxide sequestration in hydrate reservoirs: A thermodynamic approach. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research. 2019, 58, 14462-14475. Impact factor: 3.72.

[4] Nair VC, Prasad S, Kumar R, Sangwai JS*. Energy recovery from simulated clayey gas hydrate reservoir using depressurization by constant rate gas release, thermal stimulation and their combinations. Applied Energy. 2018, 225, 755-768. Impact factor: 9.75.

[5] Nair VC, Mech D, Gupta P, Sangwai JS*. Polymer flooding in artificial hydrate bearing sediments for methane gas recovery. Energy & Fuels. 2018, 32, 6657–6668. Impact factor: 3.61.

[6] Kakati A, Sangwai JS*. Wettability alteration of mineral surface during low-salinity water flooding: role of salt type, pure alkanes, and model oils containing polar components. Energy & Fuels. 2018, 32, 3127-3137. Impact factor: 3.61.

[7] Sharma T, Iglauer S, Sangwai JS*. Silica nanofluids in an oilfield polymer polyacrylamide: Interfacial properties, wettability alteration and applications for chemical enhanced oil recovery. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. 2016, 55, 12387–12397. Impact factor: 3.72.

[8] Santhosh EC, Sangwai JS*. A hybrid differential evolution algorithm approach towards assisted history matching and uncertainty quantification for reservoir models. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. 2016, 142, 21-35. Impact factor: 4.36.

[9] Ponmani S, Nagarajan R, Sangwai JS*. Effect of nanofluids of CuO and ZnO in polyethylene glycol and polyvinylpyrrolidone on the thermal, electrical and filtration loss properties of water based drilling fluid. SPE Journal. 2016, 21, 405-415 (SPE 178919). Impact factor: 3.48.

[10] Sharma T, Kumar GS, Sangwai JS*. Comparative effectiveness of production performance of Pickering emulsion stabilized by nanoparticle-surfactant-polymer over surfactant-polymer (SP) flooding for enhanced oil recovery for brownfield reservoir. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. 2015, 129, 221-232. Impact factor: 4.36.