Current Research Activities:

[At Inha University, Korea]

Our lab focuses on various industrial applications of electrical discharge plasma in addition to conducting basic research. I am directly responsible for some research projects and partly associated with some projects with my colleagues.

Projects under my supervision:

1. Indoor air pollution control: A project for developing electric discharge plasma based device for removing indoor air pollutants in collaboration with Sudo Premium Engineering Co., Ltd., South Korea was taken up and completed successfully. The laboratory scale experiments involving different constructions of the electric discharge plasma reactor were carried out to remove indoor air pollutants. A proto-type device was constructed.
2. Nitrogen oxide removal from industrial emissions: Fiber Tech Industry, South Korea commissioned a project to our lab to study the feasibility of employing electric discharge plasma technique in association with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for removing NOx emitted from industries. Experiments were conducted in the laboratory using a pulsed corona reactor simulating the industrial exhausts. Various parameters were studied and analyzed in depth. The research results were reported to the company.
3. Diesel particulate filter regeneration: Regeneration of diesel particulate filter (DPF) by using non-thermal plasma reactor. The experimental setup involving a dielectric barrier discharge reactor is almost complete and ready for experimentation.
4. Plasma assisted combustion for reducing CO emissions from gas burners: Plasma, by producing highly active species in the fuel has the capability to enhance the combustion thereby decreasing the emissions of carbon monoxide in gas burners. A dielectric barrier discharge reactor has been designed and the experimentation is under progress using LPG as fuel.

Projects I am associated with:

1. Fuel reformation: Plasma facilitates partial oxidation of hydrocarbon fuels to produce hydrogen. An electric discharge based plasma device (plasmatron) was constructed for this purpose at our lab. Preliminary experiments to test the hydrogen production are completed. Applications of diesel fuel reformation to reduce NOx and PM emissions from diesel engines are being planned.
2. Solid waste treatment: At our lab, preliminary investigations into oyster shell recycling and bone waste treatment have been successfully demonstrated using a DC plasma torch.
3. Plasma assisted rock blasting: A technology was developed for replacing conventional primary explosives (initiators) by using electric discharge plasma based initiator for secondary explosions in rock blasting application in our lab. Optimum parameters were found out from laboratory scale experiments which were later extended to field tests with good success.

Doctoral and Master’s Research Work

[At Department of High Voltage Engineering, IISc, India]

My doctoral and master’s dissertation work was to understand the basics of electrical discharge plasma treatment for nitrogen oxide removal. Key features are listed below.

• Set up a lab for electrical discharge plasma treatment of nitrogen oxide from simulated gas exhausts and diesel engine exhaust.
• Constructed dielectric barrier discharge reactors and made electrical measurements by applying AC and pulse high voltages.
• Studied the effect of various parameters (gas flow rate, temperature, addition of water and hydrocarbons, oxygen concentration and etc) on the plasma treatment of NOx.
• Plasma was combined with catalysts and adsorbents for NOx removal in various configurations and with different materials.
• Two different models of reactor systems were proposed finally for treating NOx from stationary sources.

Research Work during Research Assistantship

[At Materials Research Centre, IISc, India]

The project was about transparent glass-ceramics as photonic material for applications in electro-optics, solid state lasers and nonlinear optics. My part of work in the project included the following aspects. (i). Fabrication of glass-ceramics with different materials with different compositions (ii) Characterizing glass-ceramics for their structural properties using X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis (DTA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques (iii) Studying glass-ceramics for their dielectric, pyroelectric, piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties (iv) Second harmonic generation (SHG) studies on these materials