ANRF+IIT Mandi Webinar Competition 2026|Glycerol Photo-reforming| Prof. Prem Felix Siril | IIT Mandi

[00:00:01]Hello. I'm Professor Brain Philip Siri.

[00:00:04]Faculty member of School of Chemical Sciences IIT Mandi.

[00:00:08]Welcome to the porous functional solids and flow chemistry lab.

[00:00:12]So, we are a heterogeneous catalysis research group. So, we are involved in developing of porous functional solids such as metal organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, and so on.

[00:00:24]Meet Mr. William Haftu Gebre from Ethiopia.

[00:00:29]So, he's involved in the development of flow chemistry uh reactions, flow synthesis of materials as well as performing reactions. Meet uh Miss Aliya.

[00:00:44]Aliya is working on the development of covalent organic framework for photoelectrochemical reactions.

[00:00:51]Meet Abul.

[00:00:53]Abul is synthesizing covalent organic frameworks for environmental remediation, basically for iodine capture.

[00:01:01]Meet Abhilekha. Abhilekha is developing metal organic frameworks as photocatalyst.

[00:01:07]And uh we are also involved in hydrogen generation. So, uh Sandeep is working on developing porous organic polymers as photocatalyst for hydrogen generation.

[00:01:22]>> I'm here to show a glimpse of the ANRF-funded project on sustainable green hydrogen production from glycerol using continuous flow photo reforming process and catalyst development.

[00:01:36]Overall objective of the project is to develop green hydrogen, which is a clean fuel for the future. The currently being used methods to generate hydrogen are not clean. If we can use the freely available sunlight as a energy source to split water, it will be a sustainable process.

[00:01:57]But, a suitable photocatalyst and a suitable method has to be developed to achieve this.

[00:02:04]While splitting water to generate hydrogen, we saw that oxygen is also getting generated. The rate of hydrogen evolution can be enhanced if we avoid oxygen evolution by using a sacrificial agent such as an alcohol.

[00:02:18]We chose glycerol because it's now being produced in large quantities as a byproduct vector of biodiesel production in decreasing its price.

[00:02:28]Our idea is to generate hydrogen while using glycerol and convert it into more valuable chemicals.

[00:02:35]We did extensive literature survey and identified that titanium dioxide-based catalysts are quite valuable as catalysts.

[00:02:43]So, in this project, we are preparing titanium dioxide-based nanostructures from titanium-based MOFs, which will be explained by Abhilasha.

[00:02:53]We went beyond our initial proposal and employed machine learning to screen the catalysts reported in the literature and predicted some better catalysts using AI.

[00:03:02]Extensive catalyst screening has already yielded some highly active catalysts.

[00:03:08]We have developed a flow reactor system to continuously produce green hydrogen.

[00:03:12]>> Metal-organic frameworks are among the most significant classes of porous materials developed in recent decades.

[00:03:20]Pioneered by Professor Omar Yaghi, MOFs have attracted significant attention due to their exceptionally high surface area, tunable porosity, and versatile applications. Inspired by the unique properties of MOFs, this work explores the use of MIL-125 titanium-derived mesoporous titanium dioxide for sustainable hydrogen production through glycerol photo-reforming under natural sunlight. MIL-125 titanium was synthesized and subsequently calcined to obtain mesoporous titanium dioxide. The structural transformation was confirmed by PXRD analysis. It is showing the octahedral morphology. The PXRD pattern of MIL-125 displayed characteristic reflection of the crystalline MOF framework, while the calcined sample exhibited the diffraction peaks of anatase titanium dioxide, confirming the successful conversion of the MOF into crystalline titanium dioxide.

[00:04:25]The photocatalytic performance was evaluated for hydrogen evolution from glycerol under natural sunlight irradiation. The mesoporous titanium dioxide derived from MIL-125 provides abundant active sites and enhanced charge transport, facilitating efficient glycerol oxidation and hydrogen generation.

[00:04:47]>> Before building any physical system, we turned to computational modeling using COMSOL Multiphysics. We simulated the behavior of a continuous flow packed bed photoreactor under realistic operation conditions. The simulation coupled three key physics: fluid flow, particle transport, and reaction kinetics. This allowed us to visualize fluid flow in a packed bed reactor design. We studied the transport of diluted species in a solvent and moved on to study reaction kinetics. The simulation significantly reduced experimental trial and error, giving us a validated design blueprint before any hardware was built.

[00:05:23]Guided by our simulation results, we designed and fabricated a packed bed photoreactor. The packed bed photoreactor consists of glass beads coated with titanium dioxide photocatalyst. The glass beads serves as a stable support, providing a large surface area for catalyst immobilization while minimizing catalyst loss and simplifying reactor operation. The successful coating of titanium dioxide on the glass beads was confirmed through a CM analysis which revealed a uniform and well added catalyst layer on the bead surface. The cold beads were then packed into the custom design packed bed photo reactor and integrated into a homemade complete photocatalytic system for continuous solar driven photo reforming of glycerol.

[00:06:09]>> To summarize, this project demonstrates a comprehensive approach towards sustainable hydrogen generation by integrating computational modeling, advanced catalyst development, and reactor engineering. The optimized titanium dioxide coated glass bead continuous flow packed bed photo reactor has been successfully fabricated and its innovative design was recognized with the best team award at the IIT Mandi design practical open house.

[00:06:35]By bridging the fundamental material research with practical reactor engineering, this project lays the foundation for the next generation scalable solar fuel technologies and sustainable biomass valorization.

[00:06:49]Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere gratitude to ANRF for funding, AMRC and IIT Mandi for the research facilities, the PFS group alumni for laying a strong foundation for this project, the present PFS group members, and our interns for their invaluable contributions. Thank you and join us as we continue to drive innovations for a sustainable tomorrow.