Membrane Technology

Dr. Sundergopal Sridhar is a Chemical Engineer from University College of Technology, Osmania University, Hyderabad who has been working as a Scientist in the area of Membrane Separation Processes at the CSIR- IICT, Hyderabad for the past 20 years during which he has developed several technologies for chemical industries besides contributing immensely to rural welfare through water purification projects and academic development via extensive HRD and laboratory development in several schools and colleges. Major highlights of his career include: (i) Commissioning of several membrane pilot plants based on Electrodialysis, Nanofiltration and Gas Permeation of capacities varying from 500–5000 L/h to facilitate solvent recovery, effluent treatment and gas purification in pharmaceutical, steel, textile and petrochemical industries, and (ii) Design and installation of 15 model defluoridation plants of 600- 4000 L/h capacity and 25 highly compact low cost systems of 100-200 L/h capacity for purification of ground water for more than 2 Million population affected by fluorosis, gastroenteritis, jaundice, typhoid and other water borne diseases in villages of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, which is widely appreciated by the press, masses and His Excellency, The governor of TS and AP, besides union ministers of science & technology. A free water camp based on compact system design was established by Dr. Sridhar on Uppal Road in Hyderabad city and has been providing healthy water to urban population including pedestrians, drivers of buses, autos, cars and two wheelers, totally free of cost, since April 2016. Similar camps at All India Industrial Exhibition in Jan-Feb, 2017 & 2018 and CSIR Science Exhibition have provided free drinking water to a population of 3 Lakh people including school children. Dr. Sridhar has published 126 research papers in reputed international journals such as Journal of Membrane Science, and Macromolecules, which are widely cited by peers more than 5600 times in high impact journals with h-index of 37. He has 10 foreign patents to his credit besides 14 Book Chapters and 150 papers in proceedings of various symposia/conferences. Dr. Sridhar has trained 300 B.Tech./M.Tech & M.Sc. students from different universities and institutes for project work apart from guiding 6 scholars for PhD. Dr. Sridhar’s students have been awarded 20 prizes for meritorious work and best oral paper/poster presentation made under his guidance in various conferences / symposia. Dr. Sridhar is a recipient of 30 Prestigious Science Awards including 15 National Awards and 3 State Awards such as IIChE Amar Dye-Chem Award 2003, CSIR Young Scientist Award 2007, Engineer of The Year Award from A.P. State Govt. in 2009, Scopus Young Scientist Award 2011, NASI- Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award 2013, VNMM award from IIT-Roorkee 2015, CIPET national awards for 2016 and 2017 and Nina Saxena Excellence in Technology Award from IIT-Kharagpur in 2017.

1. Processing of complex industrial effluents and gaseous mixtures through innovative membrane technology. 2. Comprehensive process solutions for chemical and allied industries using membranes. 3. An insight into various approaches towards flux enhancement and fouling mitigation of membranes during nano and ultrafiltration. 4. Fabrication and applications of functionalized membranes in drinking water treatment. 5. Promoting rural and urban welfare by water purification through compact membrane systems. 6. Ceramic membrane based community model plants for arsenic decontamination from ground water and quality drinking water supply. 7. Forward Osmosis: An efficient and economical alternative for water reclamation and concentration of food products & beverages. 8. Low cost production of anti-diabetic and anti-obesity sweetener from stevia leaves by diafiltration membrane process. 9. Microfiltration Membranes: Fabrication and Application. 10. Hemodialysis membranes for treatment of chronic kidney disease: State of the art and future prospects. 11. Design of cost effective membrane devices for production of potable alkaline ionised water. 12. Mass Transfer Modelling in Hollow Fiber Liquid Membrane Separation Processes. 13. Design of membrane systems using computational fluid dynamics and molecular modelling. 14. Carbon polymer nanocomposite membranes as electrolytes for direct methanol fuel cells. 15. Bioethanol Production in a Pervaporation Membrane Bioreactor. 16. Recovery of value added products in process industries through membrane contactors. 17. Recent research trends in polymer nanocomposite proton exchange membranes for electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices. 18. Polyion complex membranes for polymer electrolyte membrane and direct methanol fuel cell applications. 19. Integrated Membrane Technology for Promoting Zero Liquid Discharge in Process Industries. 20. Electromembrane processes in water purification and energy generation. 21. Adsorption-membrane filtration hybrid process in wastewater treatment. 22. Layer by layer (LbL) coated multilayer membranes in dye house effluent treatment. 23. Membrane Technology- A Sustainable Approach for Environmental Protection. 24. Processing of dairy industrial effluent and kitchen wastewater by integration of microbial action with membrane processes.