My Research Interests

• Carbon dioxide capture and mineralisation: Direct air capture of CO², mineral carbonation
• Solid waste utilisation: Upcycling high-sulfur coal ash, industrial waste to composites
• Process Intensification: gas-liquid mass transfer enhancement
• Modular and autonomous chemical reactors

My active research area is carbon dioxide capture and mineralization using alkaline solid wastes such as steel slag, fly ashes etc. The problem of solid waste utilization is a pertinent problem to today’s rapidly growing consumption-driven society. My research is mainly motivated to maximize waste utilization and achieve zero discharge chemical industry, and consequently move towards a circular economy. Developing value-added produce from waste is a challenging case and largely necessitates simultaneous processing of multiple wastes or selectively transforming part of a waste. While the concept of ‘value-added products’ changes dynamically with prevailing economics, my philosophy is to achieve technology readiness for multiple economic scenarios.

A significant focus of my research is on understanding reaction kinetics and mechanisms involved by experiments and modelling, with an aim to translate into process schemes. Currently, I am working on problems such as reactive surface area evolution, novel experiment designs and analyses for heterogeneous solid reactions to gain insights into reaction controlling mechanisms, role of surface electrical properties at solid-liquid interface in designing mineral carbonation processes. I am also looking at novel high-throughput dynamic experiments for studying heterogeneous reactions using machine learning.

Research grants and Consultancy work

• Indo-US Ignition grant by USISTEF (2023-24) with UW-Madison, WI, USA and Tree Green Solutions, Hubli, India; Rs. 40 Lakhs
• XPRIZE carbon removal (2022-23); Sub-contract; University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA; USD 45000
• Production of Ascorbic acid (2021-22); Consultancy; Amar and Yashasvi Industries Pvt. Ltd, Hyderabad; Rs. 4.3 Lakhs
• Initiation grant(2021-24); IIT Kanpur; Rs. 25 Lakhs

Patents granted and filed

• Method of carbon dioxide capture and sequestration using alkaline industrial wastes and regenerating aqueous solvent; Inventors: Bu Wang, Raghavendra Ragipani; Patent No: US11559767B2; (Assigned to WARF: P200242US01)
• Method for sulfur removal from coal fly ash; Inventors: Bu Wang, Raghavendra Ragipani; US 2021-0346838 A1 (Assigned to WARF: P200236US01)
• Sustainable calcium hydroxide production for green cement; Inventors: Bu Wang, Raghavendra Ragipani, Robert Anex, Thatcher Root; WARF: P200241US02

Publications