Renewable Fuels

Renewable fuels, in the present times, have become important to curb emission of greenhouse gases, which are causing damage to the environment and leading to climatic changes. Ideally, their utilization can be a zero carbon operation. Planting suitable trees on all waste lands and agro forestry on a large scale can fulfil the needs of timber, fuel, fruits, etc. All kinds of lignocellulosic biomass can be converted by several methods to useful liquid fuels like alcohols, biodiesel, methane, renewable diesel and renewable gasoline. Hydrogen can be used as a renewable fuel because of its desirable characteristics and properties for its use as a green fuel.

Er. Rajni Kant retired from UP State Electricity Board as Chief Engineer, Thermal Design and Engineering following which he remained Consultant/Advisor to a number of Design and Engineering Organizations namely Premier Engineering Technologies-Engineering and Management Consultants, New Delhi, M/S Premier Mott Macdonald (Consulting Engineers) New Delhi and other organizations.

Throughout his career both in UPSEB as well as a Consultant/Adviser (after superannuation), he has actively participated in Planning, Design and Engineering, Development, Construction & Erection, Testing & Commissioning and Operation & Maintenance of Thermal Power Plants of various capacities. He was also deeply involved in Environmental studies, Planning and Environmental design of various power plants.

Er. Rajni Kant, an Electrical Engineering graduate from BHU in 1954 (now IIT BHU Varanasi), received an extensive training in the works of M/S Hitachi Ltd. (Japan) and also at large capacity Power Stations and Projects of Georgia Power Company (USA). He has more than 50 years of experience to his credit in the aforesaid fields and has authored about 40 papers in various fields including Power Plants and Environmental Engineering, which were published in National and International Journals and Proceedings of National and International Conferences. He is an author of 2 books entitled, ‘Water Pollution, Management, Control and Treatment authored by Er. Rajni Kant and Dr. Keshav Kant, New Age International Publishers’ and ‘Air Pollution and Control’ authored by Er. Rajni Kant and Dr. Keshav Kant, Khanna Book Publishing Co. He is a member of several professional Organizations namely; (1) Member of the Association of Technical Scholarship (Japan), (2) Member of the Association on Electrical Generation, Transmission & Distribution (Afro-Asian Region), (3) Member Central Board of Irrigation & Power (India) and (4) Member of the International Society of Environmental Botanists.

Dr. Keshav Kant is a former Professor of Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, who after superannuation in June 2005, served as a Professor and Head of Mechanical Engineering Department and later as the Director in a number of private Engineering Colleges/Institutes. He has also been Professor emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at PSIT Kanpur. He has almost 50 years of total teaching and research experience to his credit. He has 3 Monographs and 95 publications to his credit in National and International Journals and Proceedings of National and International Conferences. He has also been a Consultant to Rural Technology Action Group of IIT Kanpur for almost 3 years.

He is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi in 1964, Master of Engineering with Hons. from the University of Roorkee (now IIT, Roorkee) in 1966, and Ph.D. Degree in 1983 from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He served as a faculty of Mechanical Engineering mostly at IIT Kanpur since 1967. He has been the recipient of several awards from his Alma-maters. He is Included in ‘Who’s Who in the World’, 2010 edition. He has significantly contributed in developing Undergraduate and Graduate Courses in the Department and Thermal Science Laboratories at I.I.T. Kanpur. He has supervised 52 graduate students including 7 Ph.D.s and 45 M.Tech.s doing cutting edge research in the area of Thermal Sciences. He has also supervised 35 senior UG Design Projects and 45 AMIE Students. His research interests include Heat Transfer, Heat Exchangers, Cooling Towers, Air Pollution & Control, Renewable Fuels and Thermal Environmental Control.

Professor Keshav Kant is the co-author of 2 books namely ‘Water Pollution Management, Control and Treatment’, New Age International Publishers, and ‘Air Pollution and Control’, Khanna Book Publishing Co. and co-editor of ‘Strategies for Rural Development’, Arnold Publishing Co. He has been involved with Technology Development related to Surfactants, Simulated Moving bed Heat Regenerators and Retrofitting Small Capacity Refrigeration Systems using Eco-friendly Refrigerants. He has also been involved with several sponsored research projects, industrial consultancy and Design projects. He has been a Visiting Professor to several U.S. Universities, an invited speaker to many universities in India and abroad and keynote speaker in many National and International conferences in India. He was accredited as one of the most distinguished teachers at IIT Kanpur and U.S. Universities. As a Chairman of the Kanpur Centre of the Institution of Engineers, India for 2 years and member of its executive for 23 years, he has organized several technical events related to ‘Water Resources’ and ‘environment’ for the awareness of the people in the society. He is member of several Professional Organizations namely: (1) Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India), (2) Member of the Indian Society for Technical Education, (3) Member of the Indian Society for Heat and Mass Transfer and (4) Member of Indian Science Congress.