Background

Education

• Mumbai University, Dwarkadas J. Sanghvi College of Engineering, B.E. Chemical Engineering (2012)
• Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, M. Chemical Engineering (2014)
• Purdue University, Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2015 – present)

Experience

• Institute of Chemical Technology, Junior Research Fellow (2014 - 2015)
• Privi Organics Pvt. Ltd., Summer Intern (June - July 2011)

Awards

• Indian Society for Technical Education-IPCL Best Masters’ Thesis Award in Chemical Engineering (2nd Prize)
• Recipient of Shree Mangalyam Drugs & Organics Ltd. Endowment for securing highest marks in Masters of Chemical Engineering (Semesters I and II)
• Recipient of UGC Fellowship for pursuing Masters in Chemical Engineering

About Me

I hail from Mumbai, India. Before joining Purdue, I completed my Masters in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. While I was pursuing my Masters, I researched the synthesis of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and its selective hydrogenation to 2,5-dimethylfuran under the guidance of Prof. G. D. Yadav. Following my Masters, I worked for a year as a Junior Research Fellow at Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. During this time, I worked on an industrial project titled "Investigation of properties of molten salts as heat storage medium".

In my free time, I love playing soccer, cycling, watching movies and hanging out with friends. I also love to cook and like to explore different cuisines.

Project Description

Applications of heterogeneous catalysts to conversion of biomass to chemicals and fuels.

• Identify catalytic and fast-pyrolytic pathways that utilize xylan, cellulose, and, most significantly, lignin.
• We develop catalytic processes that deoxygenate and transform monomers and isolated polymers into useful products and tested their use with intact biomass.
• Increase the energy density of biomass-derived substrates via catalytic and pyrolytic conversions into reaction products such as furfural and levoglucosan.
• Work on strategies to increase the chain length of the hydrocarbon products produced directly from biomass, with a greater percentage of the products being in the C6+ range.
• Develop new chemistries to make hydrocarbons from different chemical platform molecules, increasing the number of useful biomass reaction products.

Publications

• Talpade, A. D., Ghanekar, P., Ezenwa, S., Joshi, R., Kravitz, S., Tunga, A., Devaraj, J., Ribeiro, F. H., Mentzer, R. (2021) Promoting a Safe Laboratory Environment Using the Reactive Hazard Evaluation and Analysis Compilation Tool. ACS Chem. Health Saf. [Link]
• Zhu Chen, J., Talpade, A., Canning, G. A., Probus, P. R., Ribeiro, F. H., Datye, A. K., Miller, J. T. (2020) Strong Metal-Support Interaction (SMSI) of Pt/CeO2 and Its Effect on Propane Dehydrogenation. Catalysis Today [Link]