The focus of this project was to develop efficient electrode materials for supercapacitors. The primary reason behind choosing this project is to reduce the use of toxic electrode materials used in supercapacitors till date. This was a group project, which involved Bharath Nair, Kawin Pradeep and Shanu Jayaraman alongside me. This project was done at Amrita University, Coimbatore as a part of BTech Chemical Engineering curriculum under the supervision of Prof G M Thirugnasambandam, wherein our mentor was Mrs Monisha Selvaraj.
The primary objectives of our project are to develop manganese-doped nickel cobalt oxide and polyaniline as the electrode materials for supercapacitors. We tried to develop green electrode materials which can store electrical charge effectively and efficiently. Finding a green electrode material for its usage in supercapacitors was a major challenge we faced during the project.
It was found out that manganese-doped nickel cobalt oxide provided the best specific capacitance. Although polyaniline is electrically conductive, it wasn't able to store charge efficiently. Therefore, this work can be extended to search for alternative metal oxide and polymer based electrode materials which can provide better performance.
The focus of this individual project was to develop coke-resistant catalyst(s) for methane dry reforming using a non-thermal plasma dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor. The project was carried out at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad in the Department of Chemical Engineering under the supervision of Prof Giridhar Madras and was co-supervised by Prof Ch Subrahmanyam from the Department of Chemistry. I was mentored by Mr Umamaheswara Rao.
The primary objective of this project is to develop coke-resistant catalyst for methane dry reforming. The conventional catalysts used in methane dry reforming suffers serious disadvantages, primarily with coke formation and active material agglomeration at high temperatures. Also, the harsh operating conditions require specialized equipment, adding to the expenses. Non-thermal plasma provides alternative pathways and is advantageous that it can be operated at room temperature and atmospheric pressure.
It was found out that manganese-promoted NiO/Al2O3 catalyst provided the best performance in terms of conversion, H2-to-CO ratio, specific energy input, and energy efficiency. Also, the coke formation was minimal, which was confirmed via TGA. Further developments can be made in catalysts to obtain higher conversion, and the reaction system can be modified to provide better energy efficiency with relatively less specific energy input. The results have been published as a research article in the journal Chemcatchem by Wiley Research Publications, for which the link to access the article can be found from the publications tab!
My PhD project aims to utilize non-thermal plasma technology for greenhouse gases conversion, along with researching on the process intensification part. The project is funded by the University of Aberdeen-Ithaca Energy PhD Studentship, and I am grateful for the funding opportunity provided by the project.
The primary objective of this project is to develop coke-resistant catalyst for reforming biogas into syngas with the help of a dielectric barrier discharge reactor. As described in the objectives of my MTech project, the conventional catalysts used in biogas upgrading suffers serious disadvantages, primarily with coke formation and active material agglomeration at high temperatures. Also, the harsh operating conditions require specialized equipment, adding to the expenses. Non-thermal plasma provides alternative pathways and is advantageous that it can be operated at room temperature and atmospheric pressure.
As a part of my PhD project, I have mentored two UG students during beginning of February - beginning of May 2025 (Freddie and Reynolds) and two PGT students during just before mid of June 2025 - just after mid of August 2025 (Subiksha and Lydia). I am currently mentoring a UG student (Elliot) since March 2026, and his project is expected to be completed by April 2026.
I worked on Royce Grant on Hydrogen Production from biomass which aimed to utilize real biogas obtained from biomass (specifically food waste). This project also aimed to utilize the as-synthesized biogas directly into plasma-catalytic reactor for the process to be intensified and commercialized. The duration of this project was between September 2025 to January 2026, and Goal7 was the company which focused on the commercialization prospect of the project. Though the biogas varied in composition on different days of plasma experiments, the outcome proved that there is a good prospect for the process to be taken into a commercial scale.
I attended the plasma school held at Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, Germany between 4th October 2025 and 9th October 2025. Renowned scientists for plasma research gave interesting and insightful lectures varying from fundamentals all the way to specific characterization techniques along with a bit of modeling. I also had the opportunity to arrange the components of a very primitive optical emission spectrometer with guidance from Sylvain Iseni, whose lecture was also interesting and insightful to attend!
The project is currently underway and the details will be updated soon.