My research expertise lies in the areas of oil and fuel characterization using a number of analytical techniques like TGA/DSC, Elemental Analysis (CHNSO), Calorimetry, TGA-FTIR, GC, ICP-OES, FT-ICR MS, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. My research methodology focuses mainly towards understanding fuel molecular chemistry and its effect on global combustion and emission characteristics to design better fuels that increase efficiency and reduce emissions. I am also interested in using machine leaning based techniques to predict fuel properties like octane number, cetane number, sooting propensity etc.
Presently I am working on heavy fuel oil (HFO) which is used as a fuel for electricity generation. I am looking into multiple aspects of HFO research including desulfurization using ODS, asphaltene characterization, swirling flame combustion and PM characterization. I am also interested in computational fluid dynamics of solid fuel combustion.