INNOVATION FROM THE REFINERY TO THE ROAD
Dr. Girish Rao, Shell Bitumen R&D Manager, Shell Technology Center, Bangalore.
18th August, 2017, Friday, 3.30 p.m., Seminar Hall, Dept of Chemical Engineering
ABSTRACT
Any talk by an oil & gas industry person must begin with the sustainability challenge and this presentation will be no different. The ‘energy transition’ from hydrocarbon to renewable is one of the greatest challenges to the human race. In this talk I will be sharing how Royal Dutch Shell, as an oil and gas major, is stepping up to this massive challenge at time when the business environment is far from buoyant. The need to deliver ‘more energy but less CO2’, whilst being very difficult, also generates a lot of scientific excitement and some of this excitement will be shared with the audience. As scientists and engineers the sustainability cause should be of relevance to the research ongoing at IITD whilst the effect of climate change should be of interest to any Indian citizen as we are one of the countries most at risk to climate change. The bulk of the presentation will focus on Shell bitumen products, where the research effort for this Downstream business is based entirely in Bangalore. The portfolio of projects range from characterising bitumen at a molecular or colloidal length scale (physical chemistry) to how these systems mix with additives (material science/polymer science) to the manufacture of the bitumen from crude oil (chemical engineering) and finally how the bitumen product is applied to aggregates to produce an asphalted road (civil engineering). The focus on asphaltenes, a group of molecules of critical importance to bitumen and crude oil, is an area of research which should generate particular interest as their structure and behavior remain unclear but might be unlocked if viewed through the fresh lens of IITK experts.
The talk will close with comments around the presence of Shell in India (its past and future) with particular emphasis on the new Technology Centre in Bangalore, one of the three Shell technology hubs.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Girish Rao has been with Shell Technology Centre Bangalore for ten years. Currently he is the R&D manager for the Downstream Bitumen business and is based in Shell Technology Centre Bangalore (STCB). His team provides all the research support for the bitumen business and conduct projects spanning from innovation with refineries to product development for road applications. Prior to joining Shell Girish spent nearly 15 years working for Unilever Research where he led teams which developed technologies in the laboratory and transferred them into the market via the manufacturing units for soap and detergent formulations. In this role much of the research was in the area of surfactant and colloid science. Over the last 20 years Girish has spent a significant proportion of time both recruiting & developing young science and engineering talent for industrial R&D in India. During his three year post-doctoral stint in the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Girish developed the “GlucoWatch” product where an iontophoretic device coupled with an electrochemical sensor was used to measure blood glucose levels non-invasively. Girish completed his Ph.D. (in electrochemical biosensors) and his undergraduate degrees from Imperial College, London.