Prasil Kapadiya

I am working on Molecular simulations study on the thermodynamics of high-value chemicals derived from lignocellulosic biomass, with Prof. Jhumpa Adhikari at IIT Bombay.

About Research Topic:

In this study, we will employ molecular simulation techniques to investigate the solution thermodynamics and reaction equilibrium involved in the synthesis of high value chemicals derived from lignocellulosic biomass. The chemicals obtained from biomass depend on whether derived from cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin fractions of the biomass; and this particular study focuses on mixtures of levulinic acid (derived from cellulose) and mixtures of guaiacol (obtained from lignin). The motivation for this study is the fact that conventional fossil fuel resources are diminishing and in the Indian context lignocellulosic biomass is an environment friendly alternate resource available abundantly in the form of agricultural and forestry residue though experiments are difficult to perform. Here, also, molecular simulation techniques implemented will be employed to both predict phase and reaction equilibrium data, and gain insights into the microscopic origins of the observations.