A visit was organized for second year students of Chemical Engineering at Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), Bhatt, Gandhinagar. IPR is an autonomous institute under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Govt. of India. It is exclusively devoted to basic research in plasma sciences and development of technological applications. This institute is largely involved in theoretical and experimental studies in plasma science including basic plasma physics, magnetically confined hot plasmas and plasma technologies for industrial application. The major thrust is in magnetic confinement fusion and plasma assisted material processing. The institute owns two operational tokamaks (a machine for controlling thermonuclear fusion) - ADITYA and Steady State Tokamak (SST) - 1. Dr. K. K. Mohandas showed the various facilities in the campus alongwith the working of tokamaks. Prof. S. M. Dutta oordinated the visit. Prof. Ruperi Rupal and Prof. Vandana Gojiya accompanied the students for the visit.
A ISTE approved and GTU sponsored Faculty Development Program was organised by Chemical Engineering Department on "Heat Exchange Process Intensification" during 31st December, 2018 to 5th Janurary, 2019. Various renowned experts in the field delivered lectures on different aspects of Process Intensification and an Industrial Visit was also conducted. The whole FDP was coordinated by Dr. Sachin Parikh, Head of Chemical Dept.
Lecture titled with “Poultry slaughter waste management” was organized by the Chemical Department for 3rd and 5th semester students on 23-10- 2018. Mr Ketan Panchal delivered the lecture to make the students understand about the waste management methods in poultry farms. Mr Ketan elaborated the sources and basic composition of waste and methods to deal with the waste. He also focused on high risk and low risk waste from the farms. He explained the current scenario of waste management and problems faced during the treatment. He explained the disposal and treatment of solid waste. Majority of the methods he explained aimed to produce value-added ellable by-products, like pet, animal or aquaculture feed components, energy generation through biogas and production of agricultural fertilizer. He also talked about energy recovery via Anaerobic digestion. In anaerobic digestion, biological degradation of organic matter into methane under anaerobic conditions takes place.
A student startup project of final year chemical engineering department students lead by Mohit Agrawal and mentored by Prof. T. S. Rajaraman won a cash prize of Rs. 10,000 from Hon Deputy CM of Gujarat Mr. Nitinbhai Patel at the Vibrant Gujarat Startup Summit. The startup titled " Wastewater Treatment through Nanophotocatalysis using solar radiation" was seleceted among the top 25 startups in the Gujarat State in the idea stage. Team Members: Mohit Agrawal, Devanshji Dave, Nishant Patel, Mesvaniya Dhara, Milin Prajapati, Mehta Kartik, Vishvesh Maniar.
Students of 3rd semester were accompanied by Prof. T. S. Rajaraman , Prof. Bhoomika Domadia and Prof. Nikita Ambegaonkar to an Industrial Visit at Naroda Enviro Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad on 29th September, 2018.
Dr. Jaimin Vasa, President GCCI and President CIA, addressed the undergraduate chemical engineering students on “Opportunities for chemical engineers in changing global scenario” on 25/09/2018. He also supported the tree plantation initiative of chemical department. The event was also attended by Dr. G. P. Vadodaria, Principal, LDCE.
An expert lecture on “Application of Drug particles and micro bubbles” was organized by the Chemical Department on 18th of September 2018, Tuesday. Dr Sameer Dalvi, Associate professor in IIT Gandhinagar, was the expert for the same. Dr Sameer Dalvi enlightened the importance and role of micro bubble for precise drug delivery. He talked about the in-depth mechanism of the same. Generation of micro-bubbles and delivering the same, bursting of the bubble on the target, target delivery, limitation of method etc were the key topics of the lecture. He focused on the advantages like usage of least dose quantity, exact drug delivery on the target, lesser time consumption of micro-bubble based delivery system. He also described how Microbubbles are used to carry a drug until a specific area of interest is reached, and then usage of ultrasound to burst the micro-bubbles. Bioactive materials get delivered due to bursting of the bubble. Dr Sameer Dalvi also discussed about the need of such modern delivery system for accurate and better treatments. He ended his lecture by describing such more innovative and recent ethods which can be useful in the nearby future.
Dr. Dipak Kunzaru, Professor (Retd) IIT-Kanpur and currently Professor in Ahmedabad University, had delivered an expert lecture on “Catalysis and its application in Petroleum Refining” for B.E Sem 5 and 7 students on 17/09/2018. Dr Kunzaru had started with the fundamentals of catalysis and made the students understand about its role and importance in the industries. He covered topics like catalysis, mechanism, role of catalyst in petroleum industries, newer developments etc. He also discussed about the major applications and usefulness of catalyst. Dr Dipak Kunzaru emphasized on the applications of catalysis in Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (FCC), Reforming, hydrogenation etc. He also enlightened the major issues and challenges of deactivation of catalyst and its solution approach. He also discussed the recent trends in the field of catalysis and necessity of newer developments to tackle with the issue of deactivation and also on waste disposal.
An expert lecture by Dr Prakash Mehta, Director, Tatwa Technologies Ltd, was organized by the department on 10th August 2018 for the Students of semester 5th and 7th. Title of the lecture was “Application of Silane chemistry for Chemical Engineering”. Dr Prakash Mehta talked about the basics of saline and saline chemistry which riggered the more interest amongst the students. He covered various topics of saline chemistry, its fundamentals, unique properties like mechanical strength and electrical properties, usefulness of this technology for chemical engineers, etc. He focused on the major areas of the application where silane chemistry can be used. He also pointed out the need to use silane fundaments in chemical industries. He shared his all hard gained knowledge with students. Students asked few queries and he satisfied all the doubts raised by the students.
Prof Manan Shah, Assistant Professor, Pandit Dindayal Petroleum University, had delivered an expert lecture on “Career building for Chemical Engineering students”. The lecture was arranged for the students of the department to have insight about their career. Prof Manan Shah talked about the various career options for the students and how they can improve themselves during the college-life. He also suggested few emerging trends where chemical engineers can build their career. He encouraged students to participate in various technical and non technical events for their overall development. He also advised students to refer and write technical papers during graduation period itself. He also shared important information like sources to get papers, useful websites, basics to write papers etc.
