Grad student Pinak Mohapatra wins travel award
Pinak Mohapatra, a doctoral student in the L.-S. Fan group, was chosen to receive the Edward J. Ray Travel Award for Service and Scholarship. Mohapatra will subsequently present his research paper, titled "Low-Temperature chemical looping assisted NOx decomposition alongside natural gas utilization," at the ACS Spring 2022 national meeting to be held March 20-24 in San Diego, CA.
Mohapatra's research focuses on chemical looping NOx decomposition (CLND), an advanced process scheme that addresses several concerns of current NOx purification processes such as CO2 poisoning of catalyst, thermal instability, and narrow temperature operational zone. Additionally, the chemical looping route he is working on provides an additional degree of freedom for process optimization through splitting the overall NOx reduction reaction into two sub reactions involving an oxide-based carrier. The process is tested to purify NOx between 400-600C with exceptional thermal stability of carrier and is resistant to other acidic gases in the feed. Overall, the process offers an opportunity to purify NOx in an economically viable and environmentally sustainable manner.
Ray Award nominees are evaluated on the basis of their academic standing, professional goals, the nature of the conference being attended, and the nominee's ability to convey the focus of their research to a general audience. As such, Mohapatra's research and goals were deemed significant and the award committee recognized his excellent history of service, the number and variety of activities, and his demonstrated commitment to the department and the community.
The Ray Travel Award encourages and enables graduate students university wide to participate in professional conferences, both in their respective fields and in the broader academic community, by reimbursing or partially reimbursing the expenses incurred by travel to conferences and meetings to present original research. Mohapatra will receive $1,000 in support of his conference travel.
