Dr Vimalnath Selvaraj
Dr Vimalnath Selvaraj
Postdoctoral Research Associate
INTEREST
I am passionate about research and development of circular economy based sustainable inventions covering both biological and chemical processes. My research focuses on recycling of spent batteries to manufacturing new batteries. With my interdisciplinary background combining chemical engineering, industrial and environmental biotechnology, I am very much interested in leveraging the full potential of my subject knowledge, skills, research experience in academia, industry, and scale-up expertise for expanding my eco-friendly research portfolio to hydrogen production, desalination, CO2 capture and conversion into value-added products, thus contribute to sustainability and circular economy agenda.
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCES
EDUCATION
PhD in Materials Engineering-Environmental Biotechnology (2016), Indian Institute of Science, India.
MTech in Industrial Biotechnology (2007), Annamalai University, India.
BTech in Chemical Engineering (2001), University of Madras, India.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH AFFILIATIONS
Post-Doctoral Research Associate (PD/RA), Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, UK (May 2018 – June 2021).
Project Associate, Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, India (January 2016 – April 2018).
Visiting Researcher, Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, UK (March 2010 - May 2010).
Visiting Researcher, Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, UK (May 2011 - July 2011).
Research Scholar, Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, India (August 2008 - July 2016).
Project Assistant, Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, India (January 2008 - July 2008).
INDUSTRY AFFILIATIONS AND INTERNSHIPS
Senior Researcher, Ever Resource (ER) Ltd, UK (July 2020-March 2021).
R&D Associate, Aurelius Environmental Ltd, UK (November 2019 – May 2020).
R&D Associate, Aurelius Technology (AT) Ltd, UK (July 2020 – July 2020).
Site engineer, LPG plant construction site, Bharath Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Solur, Karnataka, India (2002- 2004).
Industrial trainee, Fluidized Bed Catalytic Cracking Plant, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Mumbai, India. (2000).
Industrial trainee, Customer Feed Back and Impact on SAP and Customer Satisfaction Level Study, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Secunderabad, India. (2001).
GRANT WRITING EXPERIENCE
Innovate UK: An improved method for producing lead oxides for enhancing the performance of lead-acid batteries (Project No: 77447/G108214); Competition: The Sustainable Innovation Fund: round 1 (temporary framework); Innovate UK sustainable research fund for scale-up the process to produce nano-structured leady oxide. Role: Proposal writing with a team, Named lead researcher (2020-2021).
RELEVANT COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE (UCAM)
8. Innovate UK: An improved method for producing lead oxides for enhancing the performance of lead-acid batteries (Project No: 77447/G108214); Competition: The Sustainable Innovation Fund: round 1 (temporary framework); Innovate UK sustainable research fund for scale-up the process to produce nano-structured leady oxide (2020-2021).
7. LiFePO4 recycling, recovering and resynthesis (2020-2021).
6. Cadmium waste recycling and recovering Cd, Zn, Pb, Co, and other metals (2020-2021).
5. Alkaline battery recycling and recovering Zn and other metals (2020).
4. Recovering Na2SO4 from spent lead acid battery desulphurized alkaline solution and converting into value added product (2020).
3. Eurostars: ProLab-A novel lead-acid battery based on ultralightweight grids and nano-crystalline lead oxide material. Project No: E!113578 (2019-2020). This project was stopped due to Covid-19 after 6 months of starting.
2. Newton Innovate UK funded project: NUOVOpb - A complete lead recycling system to boost Brazil’s urban sustainability. DTI Project No: TP103926 (2018-2020).
1. Open Innovate UK funded Project: NUOVOpb - A Unique Lead Acid Battery (LAB) recycling technology to reduce CO2 emissions by 89%, reduce waste by 81%, and transform the battery recycling industry. Project No: TP104130 (2018-2019).
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS
PATENTS
6. Recycling of lead-containing waste (patent application filed, UK patent application number 1900833.3 and its related PCT application, 2019).
5. Desulfurisation of lead-containing waste (patent application filed, UK application number 1911532.8 and its related PCT application, 2019).
4. Methods for highly porous and ultra-pure nanostructured leady oxide from combustion/calcination of lead citrate and products of highly porous and ultra-pure nanostructured leady oxide from combustion/calcination of lead citrate (Application under preparation, 2020-21).
3. Synthesis of ultra-pure, highly porous spongy leady oxide ((Under consideration,2021).
2. LiFePO4 recycling, recovering and resynthesis (Under consideration,2021).
1. Cadmium waste recycling and recovering Cd, Zn, Pb, Co, and other metals. (Under consideration, 2021).
SELECTED JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
Published
11. Dey, A., Ghosh, P., Chandrabose, G., Damptey, L.A., Kuganathan, N., Sainio, S., Nordlund, D., Selvaraj, V., Chroneos, A., St J. Braithwaite, N. and Krishnamurthy, S., 2021. Ultrafast epitaxial growth of CuO nanowires using atmospheric pressure plasma with enhanced electrocatalytic and photocatalytic activities. Nano Select.
10. Chandrabose, G., Dey, A., Gaur, S.S., Pitchaimuthu, S., Jagadeesan, H., Braithwaite, N.S.J., Selvaraj, V., Kumar, V. and Krishnamurthy, S., 2021. Removal and degradation of mixed dye pollutants by integrated adsorption-photocatalysis technique using 2-D MoS2/TiO2 nanocomposite. Chemosphere, 279, p.130467.
9. Dey, A., Chandrabose, G., Ghosh, P., Damptey, L.A., Clark, A.H., Selvaraj, V., Kumar, R.V., Braithwaite, N.S.J., Zhuk, S., Dalapati, G.K. and Ramakrishna, S., 2021. Atmospheric pressure plasma engineered superhydrophilic CuO surfaces with enhanced catalytic activities. Applied Surface Science, p.150413.
8. Vimalnath Selvaraj, and Subramanian, S., 2018. Studies on the biosorption of Pb (II) ions from aqueous solution using extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, 172, pp.60-67.
7. Vimalnath Selvaraj, Ravishankar, H., Schwandt, C., Kumar, R.V. and Subramanian, S., 2018. Mechanistic studies on the biosorption of Pb (II) by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Water Science and Technology, 78(2), pp.290-300.
6. Vimalnath Selvaraj, and Subramanian, S., 2018. Studies on the biosorption of Pb (II) ions using Pseudomonas putida. Separation Science and Technology, pp.1-13.
Under Review
5. Lois Damptey, Bright N. Jaato, Camila Silva Ribeiro, Silvia Varagnolo, Nicholas P Power, Vimalnath Selvaraj, David Dodoo-Arhin, R Vasant Kumar, Sithara P. Sreenilayam, Dermot Brabazon, Satheesh Krishnamurthy. Surface Functionalised MXenes for Wastewater treatment – A Comprehensive Review (2021, under review)
4. Madhushri Bhar, Avishek Dey, Sourav Ghosha, Matthijs A. van Spronsen, Vimalnath Selvaraj, Y. Kaliprasad, Satheesh Krishnamurthy, Surendra K. Martha,Plasma jet printing induced high-capacity graphite anodes for sustainable recycling of lithium-ion batteries (2021,Under review)
Under Preparation
3. Vimalnath Selvaraj, Schwandt, C, Ramachandran Vasant Kumar and Subramanian, S, Bioremediation Of Pb(II) Ions From Aqueous Solution Using Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) Purified From Pseudomonas fluorescens. (2021, ready to submit)
2. Avishek Dey, Silvia Varagnolo1, Naresh Vangapally, Zahra Golrokhi, Lois Damptey, Bright N. Jaato, Suela Kellici, Prashant Sonar, Vimalnath Selvaraj, Nicholas Power, Nicholas St. J. Braithwaite, Satheesh Krishnamurthy, Doped MXene systems: Syntheses, Properties and Applications. (2021, ready to submit)
1. Vimalnath Selvaraj, Marcel Yiao, Robert Liu, Ramachandran Vasant Kumar, Athan Fox & Miles Freeman 2021. Circular economy innovation: Lead acid battery recycling to produce ultra-pure tri-lead dicitrate precursor. (2021, under preparation)
SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
4. Vimalnath Selvaraj, Marcel Yiao, Rumen I Tomov, Ramachandran Vasant Kumar, Peter Knight, Athan Fox & Miles Freeman 2021. Circular economy innovation: Lead acid battery recycling to produce nanostructured and highly porous leady oxides for next generation lead acid batteries. Armourers & Brasiers’ Forum-2021, 23 June 2021, Virtual.
3. Vimalnath Selvaraj, Marcel Yiao, Robert Liu, Rumen I Tomov, Ramachandran Vasant Kumar, Peter Knight, Steve Andrew, Spencer Lowe, Athan Fox, Miles Freeman, & Johdie Harris, 2019. Production of Ultra-Pure Lead Citrate from Spent Lead-Acid Battery Paste using a Cost-Effective, Eco-Friendly Process. 6th Intl. Symp. on Sustainable Secondary Battery Manufacturing and Recycling, SIPS-2019, Coral Beach Resort, Paphos, Cyprus.
2. Vimalnath Selvaraj, Carsten Schwandt, R Vasant Kumar & Sankaran Subramanian, 2018. Dissolution of spent lead-acid battery paste for lead recovery, bio-sensing and bio-removal of residual lead ions. SIPS-2018, 5th intl. Symp. On sustainable secondary battery manufacturing and recycling, Rio, Brazil.
1. Robert Liu, Vimalnath Selvaraj, Marcel Yiao, Vasant Kumar, Steve Andrew, Spencer Lowe, Miles Freeman, Johdie Harris, & Athan Fox, 2018. Hydrometallurgically generated nanostructured lead(II) oxide from discarded lead-acid batteries from laboratory to pre-pilot scale-up. SIPS-2018, 5th intl. Symp. On sustainable secondary battery manufacturing and recycling, Rio, Brazil.