Dr. Venkatesan Venkata Krishnan (Venkat) received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut, in the US, in 1996, after obtaining his Bachelor’s degree in the same subject from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), INDIA, in 1988. Subsequently he worked as Postdoctoral Fellow/ Associate at the Universities of Southern California and Pennsylvania, and at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering (New Jersey).

Venkat left for India in 2004, working at IIT Delhi as Assistant Professor, followed by a stint as Principal Engineer at Bloom Energy India (subsidiary of Bloom Energy Corp, Sunnyvale, CA) in Mumbai, and at Non-Ferrous Materials Technology Development Centre in Hyderabad, before finally moving to Teesside University in February 2016.

Venkat’s experience has straddled the academic domain, industrial R&D and product development, in areas of Chemical Engineering viz., Catalysis and Reaction Engineering, in Solid State Electrochemistry (primarily Solid Oxide Fuel Cells), in Process Design and in Ceramics processing. He has 2 US Patents in the area of heterogeneous catalysis and 3, in the area of hydrocarbon separations, from his work at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering.

He has considerable experience in teaching Chemical Engineering Modules, both from his stint as an academic at IIT Delhi (2004-10), and at Teesside University, since Feb 2016. He also supervised the doctoral dissertation of 3 PhD students (one student in full, and two in part), with funded research in catalysis and fuel cells, while at IIT Delhi. He has successfully supervised the PhD work of an NSIRC funded student in the area of Chromium Chemistry related to welding fumes, done in collaboration with TWI, Cambridge and is currently the DOS for another PhD student, in the area of High Temperature Electrolyzers.

Venkat is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, since 2019.

Venkat’s interests are broadly towards developing high efficiency energy conversion devices, and towards renewable hydrogen production. Within this framework, there are excellent opportunities for CO2 utilization and mitigation that he hopes to bring in, into his research projects. Some of his key areas are as follows -

• High Temperature Electrochemistry – towards Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) and Solid Oxide Electrolyzers (SOECs) –
  • Novel Concepts in High Temperature Electrolysis - Developing configurations for 'assisted' electrolysis, viz. combining HT Co-electrolysis in the cathode with partial oxidation on the anode.
  • Studies of degradation mechanisms in SOECs (steam and/or CO2-flue gases), and enhancing stability
• Alkaline Water Electrolyzers (AWEs) - the focus of my research is to enable the next generation of AWEs to be robust and effective to variations in power supplies, to be able to operate reversibly, and to eventually be effective under direct seawater conditions. To this end, I am interested in enhancing electrocatalytic properties of the anode electrocatalyst, and generate Oxygen from seawater while suppressing unwanted chemistries, viz. formation of Chlorine/ Hypochlorite species. I am also interested in enabling reversible operations of AWEs by exploring the detailed mechanisms of OERs. Our group has delivered projects from Catapult (T-Trig) being led by Duo-Drive Ltd., a local SME company, and from EPSRC's Network H2 Flex funding (in collaboration w Durham U.; SEAVOLT). These 2 projects were accomplished over 2023-24, and were worth £30,000 and £50,000, respectively.
• Recently, from 2024 onwards, 2 projects on Seawater Electrolysis, with 2 different routes/ methodologies, and in collaboration with Durham University and local SMEs, have started - funded by Research England Development Fund (RED).
• Heterogeneous Catalysis and Reaction Engineering

1. 1. Developing a range of applications related to Hydrogen production and usage, with local SME engagements (including Catalytic Membrane Steam Methane reforming, hydrogen Direct Iron Ore pellet reduction, Oxidation of hydrocarbons in IR fired heaters, Ammonia decomposition, and novel hybrid electrolysers),  - £1.75 Million ERDF funded project (2018-23)
   2. Investigations on Selective Hydrogenation and Hydro-deoxygenation of furfural towards aviation fuel grade products, using bi-functional catalysts (Funded by THYME, £50,000, 2021-22)
   3. Investigating the Hydrogen Reduction of Iron Ore - understanding the kinetics and the phase change mechanisms during the conversion of hematite to Iron, and the optimal carburization of the metallic Iron; Phase 1 of the Industrial Fuel Switching Fund, £269,000, with MPI, U. Swansea and C-Tech) - July-October, 2022 (Teesside U. contribution £40,000).

• Mathematical Modelling – Interpreting Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Data on Fuel Cells and Batteries.

Venkat has worked in the past with industry-led projects, such as – Decomposition of water using the sulfur-iodine cycle, with Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), in India, wherein his team at IIT Delhi setup a laboratory for investigating the decomposition of HI to I2 and H2, a key element of the 3-reaction scheme for water decomposition.

Furthermore, with his work on product development in the industry (with ExxonMobil and Bloom Energy) he has a strong feel for industrial needs and is interested in working with industrial groups to enhance their productivity and effect key improvements in their processes and catalysts.

In Teesside, Venkat continues to interface with local SMEs like Micropore, X-Heat, Green Lizard Technologies, Torvex, and EnAcumen, in a bid to enhance their technologies towards the hydrogen economy.

Patents:

• 'A method and apparatus for Manufacturing of solid oxide fuel cell’; – Krishnamurty Balasubramanian, Nirmal Panda, Venkatesan Venkata Krishnan, M. Govindaraju and Nitin Kanoongo; PCT Application filed on June 19th, 2014 [Number PCT/IB2014/001113)]; Full Filing for Indian Patent completed, June 19th, 2014 [Indian Patent Application number 2660/CHE/2013]
• ‘Separation of Methanol, Ethanol and/or Dimethyl Ether from Hydrocarbon mixtures’, US Patent # 6,984,765 B2 (01/10/2005); Sebastian C. Reyes, Venkatesan V. Krishnan, Gregory J. DeMartin, John H. Sinfelt, Karl G. Strohmaier, Jose Guadalupe Santiesteban.
• ‘Separation of Propylene and Dimethylether from Hydrocarbon mixtures’, US Patent # 6,733,572 (05/11/2004); Sebastian C. Reyes, Venkatesan V. Krishnan, Gregory J. DeMartin, John H. Sinfelt, Karl G. Strohmaier, Jose Guadalupe Santiesteban.
• ‘Separation of Propylene from Hydrocarbon mixtures’, US Patent # 6,730,142 B2, (05/04/2004); Sebastian C. Reyes, Venkatesan V. Krishnan, Gregory J. DeMartin, John H. Sinfelt, Karl G. Strohmaier, Jose G. Santiesteban.
• ‘Method for making Bulk Catalyst’, US Patent # 6,143,688, (11/07/2000); Mark E. Thompson, Venkatesan V. Krishnan and Alexandre G. Dokoutchaev.
• ‘Method for Catalytic Production of Hydrogen Peroxide and Catalyst therefore’, US Patent # 5,976,486, (11/02/1999); Mark E. Thompson, Venkatesan V. Krishnan, Alexandre G. Dokoutchaev, Feras Abdel-Razzaq and Shannon C. Rice.

Venkat has taught and continues to teach engineering modules relating to Heat Transfer, Elements of Mass Transfer and Particle Technology/ Mechanics, Hetereogeneous Catalysis and Electrochemical Principles. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.