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Dr. Somak Chatterjee

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Room 1216-M, Faculty Division I,
Department of Chemical Engineering,
Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani- 333031, Rajasthan. India.

Grants and Equipments

Grants

As Principal Investigator

  1. "Developing low-cost hydroponics system for enhanced agricultural yield", funded by BITS Pilani (SPARKLE project), 2024-25, 2 Lakh INR (Ongoing).
  2. “Use of distillery and domestic wastewater to generate hydrogen and development of a prototype thereof”, funded by Lightatom Electrolyzer Pvt. Ltd., 2023, 16 Lakhs INR (Ongoing)
  3. "Application of co-axial electrospun novel composite nanofiber membranes towards specific and efficient removal of arsenic, lead, and fluoride from groundwater", funded by DST-SERB, Startup Research Grant, 2021, 27.39 Lakhs INR (Completed)
  4. "Modification of polyvinylidene fluoride polymer for membrane filtration applications", funded by Gujarat Fluorochemicals, 2021, 8 Lakhs INR (Completed)
  5. "Design and development of an inline sensor for water-based contaminant detection", funded by MKS Vision, 2021, 35000 USD (27 Lakhs INR Approx.) (Completed)
  6. "Use of layered metal hydroxide in water treatment followed by machine learning-based scale-up of the process", funded by BITS Pilani (AUGSD First degree funded project), 2022, 45000 INR (Completed)
  7. "Preparation of hybrid hollow fiber membranes and its application in desalination process", funded by BITS Pilani (Additional Competitive Research Grant), 2020, 7.75 Lakhs INR (Completed)
  8. "Removal of ionic pollutants using polymer encapsulated metal organic framework from drinking water", funded by BITS Pilani (Research Initiation Grant), 2019, 2 Lakhs INR (Completed)

As Co-Principal Investigator

  1. “Non-conventional water treatment and monitoring for reuse in agriculture”, funded by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India under Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC), 2024, 41.54 Lakhs INR (Completed)

Equipments

Membrane, nanofiber and adsorbent (nanoparticle/MOF) synthesis
  1. Automated membrane caster
  2. Nanofiber electrospinning unit
  3. Hollow fiber spinneret unit
  4. Thin film applicator with varied thickness
  5. Syringe needle assembly for phase inversion of polymeric droplets
  6. Bath-type sonication unit
  7. Teflon-lined autoclave unit
  8. Hot plate stirrer units
  9. Hot air oven
  10. Schlenk flask reactor
Membrane analysis
  1. Batch filtration setup
  2. Cross-flow flat sheet membrane filtration setup
  3. Hollow fiber membrane filtration setup
  4. Membrane bioreactor setup
  5. Vacuum filtration setup
  6. Parallel plate nanofiber testing setup
  7. Forward osmosis/pressure retarded osmosis-based setup
  8. Water and soil analysis kit
  9. Multi-ion spectroquant nova
  10. Fluoride and lead ion-selective electrode
  11. pH, TDS and temperature measurement meter
  12. Turbidity/Colorimeter meter
Adsorbent analysis
  1. Fixed-bed adsorption setup
  2. Orbital incubator shaker (with temperature controller, 2 nos)

Sensor/electrocatalyst/photocatalyst analysis

  1. Potentiostat workstation
  2. Digital micro-voltmeter
  3. Portable multimeter, oscilloscope, and logger
  4. Transparent water splitting reactor
  5. Photocatalytic reactor
  6. Galvanic Cell
  7. 4 Probe Potentiostat