Development and commercialization of an olefins removal catalytic technology

Kshudiram Mantri is Group Lead, Zeolite Catalysis of Chemical Synthesis and Catalysis R&D, for Reliance Industries Ltd. Dr. Mantri graduated from IIT, Kharagpur, and earned his PhD from National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. He has served as a JSPS postdoctoral fellow at Gifu University, Japan; and as a postdoctoral fellow at RMIT University, Australia; Vrije Universiteit, Belgium; and National University of Singapore, Singapore. Dr. Mantri has 22 yr of extensive experience in adsorption, heterogeneous and zeolite-based catalysis for chemical transformation, waste-to-wealth value generation. He has experience in design, development, scale-up and commercialization of catalysts and processes, and has published 48 research articles and has 24 granted patents, including eight U.S. patents.

Krishna Reddy Jakkidi is a Lead Research Scientist in the department of Chemical Synthesis and Catalysis Research and Development at Reliance Industries Ltd. in Vadodara and Mumbai, India. He holds a PhD in chemistry from Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, India and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan. He has 17 yr of research experience in heterogeneous catalysis, with a main focus on the design and development of zeolite and metal oxide-based catalysts for hydrocarbon transformations. Dr. Reddy also has experience in scale-up and commercialization of catalysts and processes. He has published 20 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and has been granted 10 patents.

Kalpesh Sidhpuria is Lead Research Scientist in the department of Chemical Synthesis and Catalysis Research and Development at Reliance Industries Ltd. He received his PhD in chemistry from VNSGU/CSMCRI and was a FCT Post-Doctoral Fellow at CICECO, University of Aveiro, Portugal. He has 19 yr of extensive research experience in adsorption, heterogeneous catalyst, metal oxides and zeolite catalysis, and new product development. Dr. Sidhpuria also has experience in design, development, scale-up and commercialization of adsorbents, catalysts and processes. He has developed/scaled-up and commercialized different adsorbents (molecular sieves, alumina, silica gel-based) and adsorptive processes in various plants. Dr. Kalpesh has published 19 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, two book chapters, and has been granted 15 patents.

Raksh Vir Jasra, Senior VP (R&D) at Reliance Industries Ltd., is a world-renowned catalysis, adsorption and nanomaterials scientist. Dr. Jasra achieved his PhD from Indian Institute of Delhi (IIT), Delhi, his post graduate degree from Delhi University, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine at London. He has developed 66 chemical processes, 27 of which were commercialized in industry. He has published 325 research articles and has 288 granted patents, including 68 U.S. patents. Dr. Jasra is a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and Indian National Academy of Engineering, and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Indian Chemical Society. Dr. Jasra is also featured among the world’s top 2% of scientists in the field of physical chemistry for the years 2020 and 2021 as per a study by Stanford University.

Dr. Ajit Sapre is the Group President R&D at Reliance Industries Ltd. He has more than 40 yr of industrial experience in the oil and gas, refining, petrochemicals, renewable energy, sustainability and biotechnology businesses, among others. He has broad experience in varied technical areas, manufacturing, business and corporate strategy. Dr. Sapre received his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware, and an MBA from Cornell University. He has won numerous national and international awards, the most recent being the 2023 ASM International’s Medal for Advancement of Research.