CPE Alumni, Amalesh Sirkar, Shares New Publication

Prof. Amalesh Sirkar, an alumni of the Chemical & Petroleum Engineering doctorate program, shared the details about a new breakthrough paper recently published in the journal Chemical Engineering Communications. The title of the paper is "Detailed explanations for the occurrence and nature of interfacial phenomena in liquid-liquid systems on the basis of the theory of spontaneous surface convection."

About this publication, Prof. Sirkar says, "The paper deals with Energy Instability in liquid-liquid systems during mass transfer in both binary and ternary systems and the associated interfacial phenomena. Observations of the phenomena was a major part of my Ph.D. research work and subsequent publication in a paper by me in 1981. The phenomena observed by me is a major discovery not observed by others earlier. The phenomena mainly consist of unidirectional ejections of mass of solute from the raffinate to the extract phase. Ostrovskii et al. (J. Appl. Chem. USSR, 1967) proposed a theory of spontaneous surface convection due to Energy Instability. I have tried to explain the phenomena observed by me on the basis of this theory. However, I have also suggested a new theory in the paper based on the kinetic theory. It is more fool proof and direct proof of the phenomena unlike that by the Russian researchers' theory which is an indirect proof. Actual numerical verification of the proposed theory is coming up in another paper which deals with transfer of HAc from toluene to water. It will also be sent to Chemical Engineering Communications Journal as a follow up paper shortly."

Amalesh Sirkar has been Dean of Chemical Eng and the Food & Biotechnology Departments of Haldia Institute of Technology. Prior to that, he was Professor and HOD of Chemical Eng Department of the same Institute (First Private Engineering College in West Bengal, India).

Find the full article on the Chemical Engineering Communications journal website (DOI:10.1080/00986445.2021.1969553)

Other writings of interest from Prof. Sirkar include:

1. Mass transfer in presence of unconfined interfacial convection, S.M. Walas & A. Sirkar, Chemical Engineering Science, Vol 4,1979, 741-742

2. Ejection type phenomena in liquid-liquid systems due to interfacial instability, A. Sirkar, Journal of the Institution of Engineers (India) Vol, 61 pt CH3, 1981, 62-66