Rakesh Agrawal
Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering
FRNY 3053D
Purdue University
Davidson School of Chemical Engineering
Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering
480 Stadium Mall Drive
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2100
Purdue University
Davidson School of Chemical Engineering
Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering
480 Stadium Mall Drive
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2100
(765) 494-2257 (office)
(765) 494-0805 (fax)
Joined Purdue in 2004
B.Tech. - Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur
M.ChE. - Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware
Sc.D - Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interests
NSF Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources (CISTAR)
Professor Agrawal's current interest and passion are 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. His group develops solution-based methods to print and fabricate novel thin film inorganic solar cells and performs their extensive material and optoelectronic characterizations.
Another major thrust of his current research is the electrification of chemical manufacturing for decarbonization. Here we reimagine unit operations and synthesize the associated processes. Extensive process modeling and optimization techniques are used to identify energy-efficient and cost-effective processes for the manufacture of major chemicals and petrochemicals. In particular, challenges associated with the use of variable renewable electricity from solar and wind vis-a-vis dynamic load operation and energy storage are addressed.
The group is actively pursuing agrivoltaic farming under real operating practices at a U.S. agriculture farm. With a multidisciplinary team, we have installed PV panels at Purdue’s Agriculture Farm and have collected data for the crop yield of corn and soybeans underneath these panels. The entire enterprise is modeled and optimized for food production and power.
The group is also involved in developing efficient separation processes. Currently, methods to synthesize and identify energy-efficient distillation configurations for multicomponent separations with heat pumping and intercolumn heat integration are being developed. Optimal methods for membrane separation processes and their integration with distillation are being developed.
He has 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. He has published extensively on the efficient conversion of biomass to liquid fuel and maximizing liquid fuel from a given quantity of biomass. His research interests include basic and applied research in process development, gas liquefaction, cryogenics, and thermodynamics.
To find out more about Dr. Agrawal's research, visit his research group page.
Professor Agrawal's current interest and passion are 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. His group develops solution-based methods to print and fabricate novel thin film inorganic solar cells and performs their extensive material and optoelectronic characterizations.
Another major thrust of his current research is the electrification of chemical manufacturing for decarbonization. Here we reimagine unit operations and synthesize the associated processes. Extensive process modeling and optimization techniques are used to identify energy-efficient and cost-effective processes for the manufacture of major chemicals and petrochemicals. In particular, challenges associated with the use of variable renewable electricity from solar and wind vis-a-vis dynamic load operation and energy storage are addressed.
The group is actively pursuing agrivoltaic farming under real operating practices at a U.S. agriculture farm. With a multidisciplinary team, we have installed PV panels at Purdue’s Agriculture Farm and have collected data for the crop yield of corn and soybeans underneath these panels. The entire enterprise is modeled and optimized for food production and power.
The group is also involved in developing efficient separation processes. Currently, methods to synthesize and identify energy-efficient distillation configurations for multicomponent separations with heat pumping and intercolumn heat integration are being developed. Optimal methods for membrane separation processes and their integration with distillation are being developed.
He has 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. He has published extensively on the efficient conversion of biomass to liquid fuel and maximizing liquid fuel from a given quantity of biomass. His research interests include basic and applied research in process development, gas liquefaction, cryogenics, and thermodynamics.
To find out more about Dr. Agrawal's research, visit his research group page.
Research Group
Graduate Students
- Shubhanshu Agarwal
- Juan Alban Dominguez
- Shuaikang Du
- Zirui Fan
- Parikshit S. Kadu
- Akash Nogaja
- Priyanshu Singh
- Robert Spilker
- Kiruba Catherine Vincent
- Co-Advised: Jhoan Ruiz
- Co-Advised: Varsha
Awards and Honors
Youngest Ever Recipient of the Air Products' Prestigious Chairman's Award (1992)
Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement from the Univ. of Delaware (1995)
Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology from the AIChE (1998)
Clarence G. Gerhold Award, Separations Division, AIChE (2001)
Honorary Fellow, Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE), 2001
Diamond Award for Inventor on One Hundred US Patents, Air Products and Chemicals (2001)
Member, U. S. National Academy of Engineering (2002)
BAYER Lecture, Carnegie Mellon University (2002)
Air Products' Equipment Innovation Award for APX™ LNG Process (2003)
J&E Hall Gold Medal, Institute of Refrigeration, UK (2004)
Regents' Lecturer, Univ. of California, LA (2004)
Prof. B. D. Tilak Visiting Fellowship Lecture, ICT, India (2004)
AIChE Institute Lecturer (2005)
Chemical Engineering Practice Award, AIChE (2006)
V.V. Mariwala Visiting Professorship, ICT, India (2007)
Industrial Research Institute (IRI) Achievement Award (2007)
AIChE Fuels and Petrochemicals Division Award (2008)
W.R. Marshall Founders' Lecture, Univ. of Wisconsin (2008)
Tis Lahiri Lecture, Vanderbilt University (2008)
C. K. Murthy Memorial Lecture, IIChE (2008)
Excellence in Gas Processing Award, Annual Gas Processing Symposium, Qatar (2009)
AIChE Fellow (2009)
Pirkey Lecture, UT, Austin (2010)
National Medal of Technology and Innovation from the President of the United States of America (2010)
Hugh M. Hulbert Memorial Lecture, Northwestern University (2011)
Hess Lecture, Univ. of Virginia (2011)
AIChE Founders Award (2011)
Foreign Fellow, Indian National Academy of Engineering (2011)
ExxonMobil Visiting Chair Professor, NUS, Singapore (2011 – 2014)
Ken Nobe Founders Lecture, Univ. of California, Los Angeles (2012)
Distinguished Alumnus Award, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (2012)
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2013)
Shreve Award for Excellence in Teaching, Chemical Engineering, Purdue University (2013)
Allan P. Colburn Honorary Lecturer, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (2013)
Annual KAIST CBE Global Distinguished Lecturer, Korea (2013)
Fellow, National Academy of Inventors (2014)
Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study Faculty Fellow (2014)
Morrill Award, Purdue University (2014)
Prof. C.V. Seshadri Memorial Distinguished Lecture, IIT Bombay, India, (2014)
Distinguished Lindsay Lecturer, Texas A&M University, (2014)
TIAS Eminent Scholar Lecturer, Texas A&M University (2015)
Berkeley Lectures, Univ. of California, Berkeley (2015)
Schlumberger Lecture, Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, (2015)
Inducted in Purdue Innovator Hall of Fame (2015)
Shinnar Lecture, City College of New York, (2016)
American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in Separations Science and Technology (2017)
Peter V. Danckwerts lecture at the 10th World Congress of Chem. Eng., Barcelona, Spain (2017)
AIChE Alpha Chi Sigma Award (2017)
Philip C. Wankat Graduate Teaching Award in Chemical Engineering, (2019)
BASF Distinguished Lecture, Wayne State University, Detroit (2022)
Spinks lecture, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Canada, (2022)
Chandrakanta Kesavan Lecture, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India (2022)
James Y. Oldshue Lecture, 11th World Congress of Chemical Engineering, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2023)
E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry from ACS (2024)
Computing in Chem. Eng. Award, AIChE CAST Division, (2024) (co-shared with Prof. M. Tawarmalani)
Selected Publications
- J. W. Turnley, S. Agarwal, and R. Agrawal, “Rethinking tolerance factor analysis for chalcogenide perovskites”, Materials Horizons, 11, 4802 (2024). DOI: 10.1039/d4mh00689e
- K. C. Vincent, S. Agarwal, Z. Fan, A. S. Mesa Canizales, and R. Agrawal, “Expanding the Horizons for Viable Precursors and Liquid Fluxes for the Synthesis of BaZrS3 and Related Compounds”, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 12,12521 (2024) DOI:10.1039/D4TC02287D
- J. W. Turnley, and R. Agrawal, “Solution Processed Metal Chalcogenide Semiconductors for Inorganic Thin Film Photovoltaics”, Chem. Commun., 60, 5245, (2024). DOI: 10.1039/d4cc01057d
- J. W. Turnley, S. D. Deshmukh, V. M. Boulos, R. Spilker, C. J. Breckner, K. Ng, J.K. Liu, J. T. Miller, H. I. Kentt?maa, and R. Agrawal, “A Selenium-Based “Alkahest”: Reactive Dissolutions of Metals and Metal Compounds with n-Alkylammonium Polyselenide Solutions”, Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers, 10, 6032 (2023). doi.org/10.1039/d3qi01632c
- A. A. Pradhan, M. C. Uible, S. Agarwal, J. W. Turnley, S. Khandelwal, J. M. Peterson, D. D. Blach, R. N. Swope, L. Huang, S. C. Bart and R. Agrawal, “Synthesis of BaZrS3 and BaHfS3 Chalcogenide Perovskite Films Using Single-Phase Molecular Precursors at Moderate Temperatures”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 62, e202301049 (2023), doi.org/10.1002/anie.202301049
- J. W. Turnley, A. Grant, V. Z. Schull, D. Cammarano, J. Sesmero, and R. Agrawal "The Viability of Photovoltaics on Agricultural Land: Can PV Solve the Food vs Fuel Debate?" Journal of Cleaner Production, 469, 133191 (2024). doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.143191
- V. Gupta, S. M. Gruss, D. Cammarano, S. M. Brouder, P. A. Bermel, M. R. Tuinstra, M.W. Gitau, and R. Agrawal, “Optimizing Corn Agrivoltaic Farming through Farm-scale Experimentation and Modeling”, Cell Reports Sustainability, 1, 100148 (2024). doi.org/10.1016/j.crsus.2024.100148
- T. Joseph Mathew, S. Narayanan, A. Jalan, L. Matthews, H. Gupta, R. Billimoria, C. S. Pereira, C. Goheen, M. Tawarmalani, and R. Agrawal, “Optimization of Distillation Configurations for Multicomponent-Product Distillations”, Computers and Chemical Engineering, 184, 108628 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compchemeng.2024.108628.
- Z. Chen, M. Tawarmalani and R. Agrawal, “Global Minimization of Power Consumptions for Multicomponent Gas Membrane Cascades”, Computers and Chemical Engineering, 180, 108464 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compchemeng.2023.108464
- R. Agrawal and J. Siirola, “Decarbonization of Chemical Process Industries via Electrification”, Bridge, Volume 53, Number 2, 32, (summer 2023), NAE Press. https://www.nae.edu/21020/Bridge
- T. Joseph Mathew, M. Tawarmalani and R. Agrawal, “Relaxing the Constant Molar Overflow Assumption in Distillation Optimization" AIChE Journal, e18125 (2023) doi.org/10.1002/aic.18125
- R. Agrawal, Z. Chen, and W. P. Oladipupo, “Electrically Heated Dehydrogenation Process”, US Patent 12,017,983 B2 (June 25, 2024).