(6ee) Sustainable Energy Production from Renewable and Fossil Fuels

As the world energy consumption will increase by 48% between 2012 and 2040, projected by U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in International Energy Outlook 2017 (IEO2017), our society is faced with the essential challenge to fulfill our energy needs in a most efficient, economic and environment friendly manner. My research interests synergistically bind conventional and alternative energy together and will give me the unique opportunity to pursue externally funded research as a faculty member on both sides of the energy resource spectrum. Overall my research aims to develop simple, robust and effective engineering solutions to produce sustainable energy from both renewable and fossil fuels. All of these researches will be done by collaboration with different industries and by using facilities at various national labs.

Future Research Plans

My research will be mainly focus on the following research areas,

1. Second generation Biofuel production from biomass: To make biorefineries profitable and not to compete with food resources it is very important to produce second generation biofuels from non-food crops essentially lignocellulosic biomass deriving from woods, crop residues or organic waste. The main limitation for processing lignocellulosic biomass is that it requires additional step to separate main components (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) before processing followed by high temperature treatment to get bio-oil which is the main starting material to generate biofuels and other biorefinery products. To overcome these limitations, I have two goals for this project. (1) Develop solvent that could potentially dissolve/disperse all the lignocellulosic components so that the whole biomass could be treated simultaneously in a single reactor (2) Replace the high temperature thermal treating step by economical photocatalysis step using mesoporous titania-silica as a photocatalyst.
2. Mesoporous Silicon/Carbon anode electrodes for high-performance Lithium-Ion batteries: Various drawbacks of commercially available graphite anode including low theoretical specific capacity (372 mAh g^-1) and poor rate capability limit the performance of Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries as an energy storage material. Research is ongoing to replace graphite with silicon (Si) a negative electrode material due to its high theoretical capacity (4200 mAh g^-1) for the production of next generation Lithium-Ion batteries with high energy density and high-power performance. My goal for this project is to develop novel mesoporous Si electrode using inexpensive surfactant templated mesoporous silica thin film as the starting material. The pore orientation and pore size will be tuned by templating surfactant structure and by substrate surface modification. This novel design will help to release the developed stress and strain during volume expansion and maintain the structure stability for the anode electrode in Li-Ion batteries.
3. Formulation of environment friendly hydraulic fracturing fluids for shale gas reservoir: In hydraulic fracturing, the selection of suitable water based fracturing fluid additives is the most important step to recover natural gas effectively and environment friendly from low permeable shale reservoirs. The current challenges with conventional polymer based fracturing fluid additives are their hazardous nature, poor reservoir conductivity, formation rock damage, additional chemical breaker requirements, incomplete cleanup, reducing porosity and permeability of proppant pack, sensitive to high temperature/salinity in the reservoir. My goal for this project is to develop environment friendly nanoparticle-modified viscoelastic mixed surfactant hydraulic fracturing fluids with enhanced proppant carrying capacity, high temperature/salinity tolerance and pH adjustable viscoelastic property for improved natural gas recovery.
4. Shale flowback water treatment using novel Forward Osmosis membrane: Economical and sustainable water management in natural gas production via hydraulic fracturing from unconventional shale formations is currently the biggest challenge for Oil &Gas industry. Millions of gallons of fresh water along with proppants and chemical additives are used every time to fracture a new well and after fracturing completion the gas industry has to deal with the large amount of recovered or the flow back water. The flowback water contains high amount of total dissolved and suspended solids, corrosion and scale products, production chemicals and bacteria which make it unsuitable for reuse both internally and externally before proper treatment. For this research project my objective is to develop highly selective, robust and low-fouling nano-composite membrane for forward osmosis (FO) to handle large amounts of flowback water with minimum pre/post-treatment. The FO membrane will be prepared by layer-by-layer assembly using porous silica nanoparticles incorporated in polymeric membranes.

Research Experience

1. Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemical & Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati 2018-Current, Project: “Development and application of novel colloidal systems for drug delivery and skin model systems”, Advisor Dr. Yoonjee Park (Chem & Env Eng. Dept.)
2. Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan 2015-2018, Project: “Study the impact of surfactant additives used in hydraulic fracturing on the extent of water entrapment and natural gas production in shale gas reservoirs”, Advisor Dr. Brian Ellis (Civil & Env Eng. Dept.)
3. PhD in Chemical Engineering, University of Kentucky 2010-2015, Thesis:” Fundamental studies of surfactant templated metal oxide materials synthesis and transformation for adsorption and energy applications”, Advisor Dr. Stephen E. Rankin (Chem & Mat. Eng. Dept.)

Successful Research Grant/Fellowship

1. Dow Sustainability Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2-year Research & Development Grant 2016

Peer Reviewed Publications (selected)

1. Das, S.; Adeoye, J.; Dhiman, I.; Bilheux, H.; Ellis, B. “Imbibition of Mixed-Charge Surfactant Fluids in Shale Fractures”. Energy & Fuels, 2019, 33, 4, 2839-2847
2. Das, S.; Oldham, E.; Lehmler, H.; Knutson, B.; Rankin, S. “Tuning the position of head groups by surfactant design in mixed micelles of cationic and carbohydrate surfactants”. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2018, 512, 428-438
3. Das, S.; Xu, W.; Lehmler, H.; Knutson, B.; Rankin. S. “Inverted Micelle-in-Micelle Configuration in Cationic/Carbohydrate Surfactant Mixtures”. ChemPhysChem, 2017, 18(1), 79-86
4. Das, S.; Nagpure, S.; Garlapalli, R.; Islam, S.; Strzalka, J.; Rankin, S. “Pore Orientation Effects on the Kinetics of Mesostructure Loss in Surfactant Templated Titania Thin FIlms”. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2016, 18, 2896-2905
5. Zhou, L.*; Das, S.*; Ellis, B. “Effect of surfactant adsorption on the wettability alteration of gas-bearing shales”. Environmental Engineering Science, 2016, 33, 10, 766-777 * Equal contribution
6. Das, S.; Wu, Q.; Garlapalli, R.; Nagpure, S.; Strzalka, J.; Jiang, Z.; Rankin, S.“In-Situ GISAXS studies of Orientation Effects on the Transformation Mechanisms in Mesoporous Titania Thin Films”. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2014, 118, 968-976

Successful Grant of Time at National Lab Facilities (selected)

1. User proposal (IPTS-22133) “Nanostructure change of light-activatable drug-encapsulated liposome by laser irradiation and colloidal stability”, Extended Q-Range Small Angle Neutron Scattering (EQ-SANS): Beam line BL-6, Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) 2019
2. User proposal (IPTS-22139) “Molecular Interaction Between Surfactant from Body Wash and Skin Stratum Corneum Surface”, Neutron Reflectometry: Beam line BL-4B, Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) 2019
3. User proposal (Proposal ID: 22902) “Pores Accessibility of Mixed Surfactant Fracturing Fluids”, Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS): Beam line NG-B-30-m SANS, Center for Neutron Research (NCNR), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 2017
4. User proposal (IPTS-15695) “Effect of Surfactant Adsorption on Water Imbibition in Organic-rich Shale: Neutron Imaging Study”, Neutron Imaging: Beam line CG-1D, Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) 2016
5. General user proposal (GUP-32929) “Pore Orientation Effects on the Kinetics of Mesostructure Loss in Surfactant Templated Titania Thin Films”, GISAXS/ GIWAXS: Beam line 8-ID-E, Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Lab (ANL) 2013

Teaching Interests:

My philosophy of teaching is to create an environment for students where the skills and knowledge learned from the class will eventually be used in practical fields. I believe that the most significant learning occurs in situations that are both meaningful and realistic. My goal as an educator is to inspire students to pursue their academic interests by learning to ask the right questions, not memorize the right formulas. I view teaching as a privilege and hope that my efforts will have a positive influence on my students as my past professors have had on mine. My previous teaching experience as teaching assistant at University of Kentucky and my postdoctoral course on college science teaching at University of Michigan will help me to become a successful educator. I am confident that I would be able to teach any course in the Chemical & Materials engineering curriculum, and am interested in teaching the following courses: (1) Engineering thermodynamics, (2) Fluid dynamics, (3) Transport phenomena, (4) Separation processes and (5) Reaction engineering. Apart of that I am also interested in developing elective courses on (1) Colloid & Interfacial science (2) Sol-gel chemistry & applications.