Maximization of FCCU performance by improved FCC feed injection nozzles

Hemant Mishra has been working in the energy industry for 7 yr. He works as Manager, R&D at HPCL’s Green R&D Center in Bengaluru, India. Mishra earned a MTech degree in chemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India. His expertise focuses on projects related to fluidized-bed internals design and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), process simulation and providing technical services in the FCC domain.

Arkaprava Chowdhury has 2 yr of experience and serves as an Officer, R&D at HPCL’s Green R&D Center in Bengaluru, India. He earned an MS degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, India. Chowdhury’s expertise focuses on process and technological development.

Arun P. Asokan has 3 yr of experience in the energy sector and serves as a Senior Officer, R&D at HPCL’s Green R&D Center in Bengaluru, India. Asokan earned an MTech degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India. His expertise focuses on process development, process simulation and providing technical support in the FCC domain.

Somanath Kukade is a Chief Manager, FCC at HPCL’s Green R&D Center in Bengaluru, India, and has 20 yr of research experience. He earned a Bch degree from the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, and an MS degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, both in chemical engineering. Kukade has been granted 28 patents in the areas of FCC process and catalysts/additives. His areas of management include gas-solid fluidization, cold flow hydrodynamics, CFD, FCC process simulation, FCC catalyst evaluation/pilot plant studies, FCC process design and process development, technical services/troubleshooting for FCCUs, and the scale-up of catalyst and additives.

Pramod Kumar is a General Manager in HPCL’s corporate R&D center in Bangalore, India. He has 24 yr of experience in process design, research, engineering and technical services in FCC, delayed coking, biomass conversion processes, methane pyrolysis and catalyst scale-up. He earned an MTech degree in chemical engineering from IIT-Kanpur, India. Kumar is responsible for the commercialization of HPCL’s FCC feed nozzle, catalytic visbreaking process, and FCC catalyst and additives. He has > 30 patents in areas of FCC, crude-to-chemicals, catalyst, etc.