Research Projects

The aviation industry is regarded as one of the essential building block of the contemporary global economy. The industry primarily relies on petroleum derived fuels to fuel the aircraft gas turbine engine, resulting in almost 14% of the overall emission from transportation. With the growing concerns of greenhouse gas emissions coupled with firm environmental legislations, and rising fuel prices, aviation industry is driving towards adopting renewable and sustainable fuels. In this context, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) can be used as a blend component in petroleum based jet fuel, without modifying the existing aircraft engine. India generates a significant proportion of sewage sludge with 72,368 million litres per day, with only 28% being treated. Sludge management is both costly and challenging owing to its high water content and poor dewater-ability. While current sludge disposal techniques offer some extent of sludge management, but does not capitalize the energy potential locked within it. Sludge includes significant organic matter, which can be turn into bio-crude whose further upgradation can be blended with petroleum based jet fuel. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is emerging as a promising technology, which converts wet sewage sludge into bio-crude under high pressure (4-35 MPa) and moderate temperature conditions (250-400°C) with water as reaction medium and catalyst. Intrinsic water in the sludge serves as H2 source bio-crude which can further upgraded into SAF. Co-HTL allows combination of low-value feedstocks, resolving waste management issues. Agricultural residues can be employed with sewage sludge in co-HTL, aiding in enhancing energy recovery and improved biocrude yield and quality. Wheat is the global largest cultivated cereal crop with an annual production of 736 Million metric tonnes. India is ranked as the second largest wheat producer with 107 MMT, producing 182 MMT of wheat straw as agro-residue, which can be incorporated in co-HTL. The proposal aims to explore co-HTL of sewage sludge and wheat straw, followed by catalytic hydro-deoxygenation (HDO) of the resulting bio-crude for its potential blending with Jet A-1 as a SAF. The influence of different co-HTL conditions will be studied for attaining optimal parameters for maximising yield and quality of bio-crude. The bio-crude obtained at optimal condition will be upgraded through catalytic hydro-deoxygenation (HDO). Char produced from co-HTL will be doped with Ni-Mo (Nickle-Molybdenum), while Ni-Mo doped red mud will be synthesised separately, and deployed as low cost, waste derived bimetallic catalysts for HDO. The upgraded oil from the optimized HDO conditions will undergo fractional distillation as per ASTM standards for obtaining different fractions. The properties of the middle distillate fraction will be determined in terms of its physical and fuel characteristics to discern its suitability and compatibility for blending with petroleum aviation fuel (JET A-1).