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
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
Visiting Scholars and Postdoctoral Associates
- Parham Mobed
Graduate Students
- Essam AlRuqobah
- Jose Chavez Velasco
- Swapnil Deshmukh
- Ryan Ellis
- Radhakrishna Tumbalam Gooty
- Zheyu Jiang
- Tony Joseph Mathew
- Yiru Li
- Scott McClary
- Taufik Ridha
- David Rokke
- Co-advised: Joseph Andler and Xianyi Hu
Awards and Honors
Selected Publications
“Round-the-clock power supply and a sustainable economy via synergistic integration of solar thermal power and hydrogen processes”, E. Gencer, D. S. Mallapragada, F. Marechal, M. Tawarmalani, and R. Agrawal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 112(52), 15821 (2015). http://www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1513488112/-/DCSupplemental
"Generalized Quantum Efficiency Analysis for Non-ideal Solar Cells: Case of Cu2ZnSnSe4", C. J. Hages, N. J. Carter and R. Agrawal, J. Appl. Physics, 119, 014505 (2016).
"Optoelectronic and material properties of nanocrystal-based CZTSe solar cells with Ag-alloying”, C. J. Hages, M. J. Koeper and R. Agrawal, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 145, 342 (2016).
"Thermal Coupling Links to Liquid-only Transfer Streams: An Enumeration Method for New FTC Dividing Wall Columns”, G. Madenoor Ramapriya, M. Tawarmalani and R. Agrawal, AIChE Journal, 62(4), 1200 (2016). DOI: 10.1002/aic.15053.
"Global Optimization of Multicomponent Distillation Configurations: 2. Enumeration based Global Minimization Algorithm”, U. Nallasivam, V. H. Shah, A. A. Shenvi, J. Huff, M. Tawarmalani and R. Agrawal, AIChE Journal, 62(6), 2071 (2016), DOI: 10.1002/aic.15204.
"Solution-processed sulfur depleted Cu(In, Ga)Se2 solar cells synthesized from a monoamine–dithiol solvent mixture”, X. Zhao, M. Lu, M. J. Koeper and R. Agrawal, J. Mater. Chem. A, 4, 7390 (2016).
"Synthesis and Characterization of Cu3(Sb1-xAsx)S4 Semiconducting Nanocrystal Alloys with Tunable Properties for Optoelectronic Device Applications“, R. B. Balow, C. K. Miskin, M. M. Abu-Omar and R. Agrawal, Chemistry of Materials, 29, 573 (2017), DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b03850
"Directing solar photons to sustainably meet food, energy, and water needs”, E. Gencer, C. Miskin, X. Sun, M. R. Khan, P. Bermel, M. A. Alam and R. Agrawal, (2017), DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-03437-x.