Research Interest
- Process Engineering and Design
- Plantwide Control
- Process Intensification
Education
- B.Tech, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, 1996
- Ph.D, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1999
Research Overview
Our research focuses on process integration for improved material and energy
utilization efficiency and its implications on plant design, operation and control.
The integration makes the design of a robust plantwide control to reduce the overdesign
for a controllable plant system particularly challenging due to the high non-linearity
and multiway dynamic interaction introduced by the material and energy recycle loops. Our
research has made significant contributions towards developing a systematic procedure for
addressing fundamental plantwide control system design questions of what process variables
to control for satisfying the safety, stability and economic objectives, and synthesizing
a robust control structure (pairing with control inputs and other enhancements) for controlling
the same. We are also researching the systematic leveraging of the immense flexibility in plantwide
control system synthesis to optimize the process design for controllability. Our work has a practical
orientation and is aptly summarized in the quote, "If you cannot explain it to a six year old, you do
not understand it yourself", by Einstein.
Awards
- Chevron Corporation Chair Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur (Oct 2018- Sep 2021)
- Visiting Chemical Engineering Faculty, Nanyang Technical University (NTU), Singapore (2012-14)
- PK Kelkar Outstanding Young Researcher Fellowship, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur (2009-12)
- Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window Lot 13 Fellowship, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Norway (2009)
- Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society Member University of Tennessee, Knoxville (1997-1999)
Publications
- A Gupta, HS Kumaiya, P Srivastava, N Kaistha, Single-pot extractive double divided wall column for Acetonitrile, Ethanol, and water Separation: Design and control, Separation and Purification Technology, 357, 130162 (2025).
- P Srivastava, A Gupta, N Kaistha, Synthesis and Integrated Design of a Compact Azeotropic Process for EtAc–MeOH–Water Separation, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 63 (49), 21466-21478 (2024).
- SL Simon, N Kaistha, V Agarwal, Accelerated Relaxation Engines for Optimizing to Minimum Energy Path, arXiv, 2410.21837 (2024).
- SL Simon, N Kaistha, V Agarwal, An Adaptive Acceleration Routine for Efficient MEP Discovery, 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting, (2024).
- A Gupta, P Srivastava, N Kaistha, Plantwide Surge Capacity Control for Sustainable Process Operation, Process Integration and Optimization for Sustainability, 1-17 (2024).
- A Gupta, P Srivastava, N Kaistha, Role of the Throughput Manipulator on Economic and Sustainable Process Operation, Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 53, 1789-1794 (2024).
- P Srivastava, A Gupta, N Kaistha, Glycerol valorisation to glycerol carbonate: Process synthesis, design and control, Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 53, 1369-1374 (2024).
- P Srivastava, A Gupta, N Kaistha, Sustainable Glycerol Carbonate Manufacturing: Process, Synthesis, Design, and Control, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 63, 4, 1926–1940 (2024).
- P Srivastava, A Gupta, N Kaistha, Compact process for cumene manufacture: Synthesis, design and control, Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 190, 220-232 (2023).
- N. Kaistha, Liquid level control in a recycle loop, Journal of Process Control, 104, 11 (2021).
- V. Kumar, N. Kaistha, Design and Control of a Vapour Recompression C3 Splitter, Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 159, 410 (2020).
- V. Kumar, N. Kaistha, Inferential self-optimizing control of a reactor-separator-recycle process, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 58, 15209 (2019).
- V. Kumar, N. Kaistha, Invariants for optimal operation of a reactor-separator-recycle process, Journal of Process Control, 82, 1 (2019).
- V. Kumar, N. Kaistha, Real-Time optimization of a reactor–Separator–Recycle process II: dynamic evaluation, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 58, 1966 (2019).
