Dr. L. M. Das
Former Professor, IIT- Delhi
(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitmohandas/)
Dr Lalit Mohan Das superannuated as Professor from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in December 2012 and thereafter continued as Emeritus Professor in the same Institute for a period of five years till December 2017. As far as his academic background is concerned, he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Regional Engineering College, (presently NIT) Rourkela and subsequently had his Master of Technology (M Tech) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and Ph D from IIT Delhi.
During his teaching and research career spanning over a period of more than 44 years, he had persistently carried out R&D activities on alternative low-emission fuels such as Hydrogen, Biodiesel, Compressed Natural Gas, HCNG, Propane, Ethyl Alcohol etc for internal combustion engines which are being used in transport as well as for decentralized energy applications such as gensets and pump sets etc.
He has supervised 34 PhD thesis and seventy seven Master of Technology (M.Tech) projects and has to his credit about one hundred twenty research papers related to use of alternative fuels in engines , combustion exhaust emission characteristics. He was Guest Editor of the special issue of the journal entitled “Scientific & Industrial Research” on the topic "Energy Sources for the New Millennium" for Journal of, Volume 62 January-February 2003,Prof Das contributed chapters/papers on Hydrogen and Biodiesel in books such as
(1) L.M.Das, Chapter 7: Hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines, Compendium of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 3: Hydrogen Energy Conversion, Elsevier Publishing, 2016, Pages 177–217.
(2) L.M.Das, Chapter 1: Evolution of hydrogen engine technologies, Energy , Combustion and Propulsion: New Perspectives, Athena Academia Ltd 2016.
(3) Verma, S., Kaushik, S.C., Das, L.M., Exergy analysis of hydrogen-fueled spark ignition engine based on numerical investigations, Source of the Document Combustion for Power Generation and Transportation: Technology, Challenges and Prospects, 2017.
(4) L.M. Das and Venu Madhav “Research issues in development of bio-diesel engines” Biofuels towards a greener and secure energy future / The Energy and Resources Institute, 2006.
(5) Two research papers entitled "Fuel Induction Techniques for a Hydrogen Operated Engines" and "Safety Aspects of Hydrogen Fueled Engine System Development" have been included in the book titled "Hydrogen Fuel for Transportation" published by Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), USA.
He was a consultant in Shell Research Limited, Thornton Research Centre, England. He also had research assignments in INRETS, France and Technical University (Instituto Superior Técnico) Lisbon, where he worked on engine combustion and pollution. Dr Das was a Visiting Professor in University of California, Riverside. During his several visits abroad, he had delivered thirty six lectures in USA, Canada, England, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Belgium Netherlands Thailand, Moscow, Turkey, Philippines, Nepal and Srilanka. He also has delivered one hundred four energy-environment related talks on several occasions in India on topics related to alternative fuels and combustion-generated pollution. Dr Das had been the Director of a UNIDO-funded consultancy project entitled “Hydrogen –operated Three-wheelers in India” .He had been the Principal Investigator of several sponsored projects funded by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy(MNRE), Department of Science Technology , General Motors (USA), European Union, UNIDO, Shell( England).He was the Principal Investigator of a UNIDO-sponsored academia-industry project consisting of IIT Delhi, Mahindra and Mahindra and Air products (USA) as an outcome of which world’s first hydrogen-operated three wheelers were launched in Pragati Maidan in 2012.
Dr Das has been a member of the Advisory board of International Association of Hydrogen energy. He has been awarded “Rajiv Gandhi Samman” award by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Orissa (2005). In 2012, he has been awarded Lockheed Martin “India Innovators Award 2012” for his R&D achievements. International Association of Hydrogen Energy has given him the ‘Outstanding Service Award” for his “Altruistic Contribution” to the “cause of Hydrogen Economy”. He has also been awarded T.N. Veziroglu award by Hydrogen Association of India (2013) and Biju Patnaik award by Odisha Science Academy for scientific excellence “in recognition of his original and creative contribution” (2014).He got Life Time Achievement Award by International Society of Energy, Environment and Sustainability (ISEES) (2015). In consideration of his R&D achievements, Auto Association of Renewable Energy Agencies of State (AREAS), on its Foundation Day on 24th August 2015, presented IIT Delhi along with Mahindra & Mahindra, an award for R&D in Renewable Energy.