IIT Bombay Chemical Engineering Alumni in collaboration with the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay organized a seminar on 'Evolution and Future of Energy'.

The seminar featured eminent alumni who are leaders in the energy industry, namely - Neeraj Sethi of Baker Hughes; Dr. Rohit Patwardhan of Saudi Aramco; Partha Maitra of Reliance Industries Limited; Amit Pathare of Feyn Partners; and Prof. A. K. Suresh, Senior Faculty from the Chemical Engineering Department and former Deputy Director of IIT Bombay.

In his opening statement, Neeraj Sethi introduced the need for the transition from conventional fossil fuels to fulfil the energy demand while addressing global challenges, such as carbon emissions, global warming, and climate change. Neeraj also discussed possible alternatives to conventional energy sources that today’s chemical engineers should look into.

Maitra listed some of the real challenges outlined are: highest CO2 concentration in the atmosphere; loss of glaciers and polar ice caps; and increasing sea-levels. Maitra also listed four plausible ways to address these issues: Renewable power; Sustainable hydrogen; Carbon capture and sequestration; and biomass as sustainable fossil fuels.

Patwardhan elaborated on the role of chemical engineers and said that to upscale, it is important to learn new processes, new technologies, digital methods, etc. To contribute, chemical engineers would additionally need to have a very solid understanding of data analytics, statistics as well as Machine Learning (ML) techniques.

Patwardhan envisioned that the next 30 years are going to be truly transformative as new industry sectors are established and new business models are proven.

Pathare discussed the challenges, energy policy and commercialization of the energy transition. Pathare stressed on the integration of hardware and software technologies to ensure efficient outcomes.

He opined that it would be necessary to have exposure to engineering as well as financial and policy elements to create a roadmap for a sustainable future and to implement the required technological solutions.

Suresh spoke about the initiatives and current activities taken by IIT Bombay towards the energy transition, such as solar photovoltaics, Li-ion batteries, electrolysers, fuel cells, etc.

The session ended with a vote of thanks from Madhu Vinjamur, Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay.