Rakesh Agrawal
Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering
Purdue University
Davidson School of Chemical Engineering
Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering
480 Stadium Mall Drive
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2100
Research Interests
NSF Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources (CISTAR)
Professor Agrawal's current interest and passion is in energy production issues especially from renewable sources such as solar. The thrust of research is to fabricate low-cost solar cells based on nanotechnology.
Another major thrust of his current research is efficient conversion of biomass to liquid fuel and maximizing liquid fuel from a given quantity of biomass. He is also involved in modeling to find the role of biofuels vis-a-vis other solar energy derived alternatives to propel an entire transport sector in a solar economy.
The group is also involved with developing efficient separation processes. Currently methods to synthesize and identify energy efficient distillation configurations for multicomponent separation are being developed. Additional effort is being devoted to develop optimal methods for membrane separation processes.
He has a broad experience in hydrogen production and purification technologies. This has evolved from his earlier activity in developing integration steps within coal gasification combined cycles for power as well as syngas generation.
His research interests also include basic and applied research in process development, gas liquefaction processes, cryogenics, and thermodynamics.
To find out more about Dr. Agrawal's research, visit his research group page.
Research Group
Graduate Students
- Essam AlRuqobah
- Jose Chavez Velasco
- Zewei Chen
- Swapnil Deshmukh
- Ryan Ellis
- Radhakrishna Tumbalam Gooty
- Daniel Hayes
- Yiru Li
- Tony Joseph Mathew
- Scott McClary
- Anna Murray
- Wasiu (Peter) Oladipupo
- Apurva Pradham
- Edwin Rodriquez
- David Rokke
- Jonathon Turnley
- Varsha Varsha
- Kyle Weideman
- Co-advised: Joseph Andler
Awards and Honors
Selected Publications
S. D. Deshmukh, R. Ellis, D. Sutandar, D. J. Rokke, and R. Agrawal, "Versatile Colloidal Syntheses of Metal Chalcogenide Nanoparticles from Elemental Precursors using Amine-Thiol Chemistry", Chemistry of Materials, 31, 9087 (2019)
T. Mathew, R. Tumbalam Gooty, M. Tawarmalani, and R. Agrawal, "110th Anniversary: Thermal Coupling via Heat Transfer: A Potential Route to Simple Distillation Configurations with Lower Heat Duty", Published in 110th anniversary issue of I&EC Res. (2019)
Z. Jiang, Z. Chen, J. Huff, A. Shenvi, M. Tawarmalani and R. Agrawal, "Global Minimization of Total Exergy Loss of Multicomponent Distillation Configurations", Accepted for publication in AIChE Journal
R. Agrawal, "Chemical Engineering for a Solar Economy", Chemical Engineering Science, 210, 115215(2019)
C. K. Miskin, Y. Li, A. Perna, R. Ellis, E. K. Grubbs, P. Bermel and R. Agrawal, "Sustainable Coproduction of Food and Solar Power to Relax Land Use Constraints", Nature Sustainability, 2, 972-980(2019)
X. Zhao, S. D. Deshmukh, D. J. Rokke, G. Zhang, Z. Wu, J. T. Miller, and R. Agrawal, "Investigating Chemistry of Metal Dissolution in Amine-Thiol Mixtures & Exploiting it towards Benign Ink formulation for Metal Chalcogenide Thin Films", Chemistry of Materials. 31, 5674 (2019)
Z. Jiang and R. Agrawal, "Process Intensification in Multicomponent Distillation: A Review of Recent Advancements", Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 147, 122-145 (2019)
Z. Jiang, T. J. Mathew, H. Zhang, J. Huff, U. Nallasivam, M. Tawarmalani and R. Agrawal, "Global Optimization of Multicomponent Distillation Configurations: Global Minimization of Total Cost for Multicomponent Mixture Separations", Computers and Chemical Engineers, 126, 249 (2019)
S. McLeod, E. Alruqobah and R. Agrawal, "Liquid Assisted Grain Growth in Solution Processed Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2", Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, 195, 12-23 (2019)
R. Tumbalam Gooty, R. Agrawal and M, Tawarmalani, "An MINLP Formulation for the Optimization of Multicomponent Distillation Configurations", Computers and Chemical Engineers, 125, 13-30 (2019)
C. K. Miskin, S. D. Deshmukh, V. Vasiraju, K. Bock, G. Mittal, A. Dubois-Camacho, S. Vaddiraju and R. Agrawal, "Lead Chalcogenide Nanoparticles and Their Size-Controlled Self Assemblies for Thermoelectric and Photovoltaic Applications", ACS Applied Nano Materials, 2(3), 1242-1252 (2019)
T. Ridha, Y. Li, E. Gençer, J. J. Siirola, J. T. Miller, F. H. Ribeiro and R. Agrawal, “Valorization of Shale Gas Condensate to Liquid Hydrocarbons through Catalytic Dehydrogenation and Oligomerization”, Processes, 6, 139 (2018)