Paper Presentations

Mohan Gurudath's Experience

"I had the privilege of presenting my paper, “Carbon-Financed Clean Cooking in Rural India,” at the prestigious India Energy Week (IEW) Conference. The paper, authored by me and co-authored by Surya Rao, examines how carbon finance can accelerate the large scale adoption of clean cooking solutions in rural India while delivering measurable climate and social benefits.

The presentation highlighted how integrating commercially available monitoring technologies, transparent reporting systems, independent verification, and access to international carbon markets can enable clean cooking programmes to generate performance linked carbon revenues. This approach can significantly enhance affordability, sustain long-term adoption, and complement national initiatives promoting LPG and electric cooking. Importantly, it offers a scalable pathway to transition clean cooking programmes from subsidy driven models towards market supported and financially sustainable solutions.

The session was well received by the audience, and I was honoured to share the platform with a distinguished panel of experts, including Ajaykumar Bhagaht from senior management of BPCL. The session was moderated by T. D. Sabu, CEO of the LPG Equipment Research Centre, who appreciated the ideas presented and remarked that the concepts discussed have strong potential and merit consideration for implementation.

It was a rewarding experience to engage with industry experts, policymakers, and researchers and to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on advancing clean cooking solutions and sustainable energy transitions in India."

Rakesh Singh Shares Perspectives on Scalable Clean Energy Solutions at Delhi Conference

Rakesh Singh, Director – Marketing, participated as a panelist at a Clean Energy Conference held recently in Delhi, where he shared insights on the scalability of sustainable process technologies and their role in supporting global energy needs.

During the panel discussion, Singh addressed a key question on the feasibility of deploying sustainable technologies at a world scale, particularly in hard‑to‑abate industrial sectors. He emphasized that while decarbonization is a global priority, the demand for energy - especially in developing economies - continues to rise significantly.

Rajendran Gupta's Paper on Nylon Recycling published in the March 2026 edition of Hydrocarbon Processing

Chemical Recycling of Nylon 6 and Nylon 6,6: Evaluating Methods and Addressing Industrial Scalability

The paper focuses on the growing importance of recycling nylon, particularly Nylon 6 and Nylon 6,6, due to their widespread use in industries such as automobiles, textiles, and engineering plastics. With global production expected to reach 10.4 million tons by 2027 and only about 2% currently being recycled, nylon waste is becoming a major environmental concern, contributing significantly to ocean pollution and landfill accumulation. Nylon 6 is produced from caprolactam, while Nylon 6,6 is made from adipic acid and hexamethylenediamine, and effective recycling aims to recover these original monomers to support a circular economy.

The study evaluates several chemical recycling methods. Among them, hydrolysis is the most mature and commercially implemented technique, where nylon reacts with water at high temperatures (250–350°C) and in the presence of acid catalysts like phosphoric acid, achieving yields above 90%. However, challenges such as corrosion and by-product formation exist. Glycolysis, which uses glycols like ethylene glycol, offers milder conditions but suffers from low yields and oligomer formation, and currently has no commercial application. Ammonolysis involves reacting nylon with ammonia at high temperature and pressure, producing useful intermediates, but is limited by energy-intensive conditions and long reaction times.

Pyrolysis, although widely used for other plastics, is not suitable for nylon recycling because it produces oils and gases instead of monomers, thereby breaking the circular recycling loop. In contrast, enzymatic recycling is an emerging and promising method that uses specialized enzymes to depolymerize nylon under mild and environmentally friendly conditions, though it is still in the early stages of development.

A major challenge highlighted is the difficulty in recycling nylon due to its presence in blended textile waste with materials like cotton and polyester, along with chemical treatments that reduce recyclability. The study concludes that hydrolysis and ammonolysis are currently the only scalable methods, while enzymatic recycling holds strong future potential. Overall, advancements in process optimization, catalyst and enzyme development, and improved waste segregation are essential to make nylon recycling more efficient, scalable, and sustainable.

Rajesh Inder Singh's Paper Presentation at India Energy Week

Advance Catalyst Solutions for Ammonia Cracking Technology

The primary challenge inherent in the current energy system is its substantial environmental footprint, largely attributable to its heavy reliance on fossil fuels. In recent decades, there has been extensive exploration into utilization of hydrogen as a clean energy. Hydrogen could account for up to 12% of global energy by 2050. However, to make it economically feasible, there must be a significant reduction in the production costs associated with both renewable electricity generation and electrolysis.

Another key hurdle in hydrogen technologies is the effective storage and transport of hydrogen, which boasts a very high energy density by mass (119.7 MJ/kg) and very low energy density per unit volume (3.2MJ/L in compressed form at 40 MPa or 8.5 MJ/L in liquefied form at -253°C). A recent development in this realm is the consideration of ammonia as a viable hydrogen carrier. Ammonia boasts a high hydrogen content by weight (17.8%) and is capable of liquefying at low pressure, 1 bar at -33 °C. This strategic approach capitalizes on existing, dependable infrastructure that can be readily expanded to accommodate the burgeoning market demand. More than 100 MTPA of Ammonia is expected to be traded via ships by 2050.

KBR has a long history as a market leader in ammonia technology. Built on a legacy of technology innovation and industry records, KBR’s Ammonia Cracking technology, H2ACT®, delivers a pathway to large scale, sustainable hydrogen production, with efficiency and high technology readiness at the heart of the process. H2ACT® is built using proven, reliable technology elements and process operations from the ammonia production industry, capable of providing a record single-train capacity of 1,200 MTPD of clean hydrogen.

Selecting the most suitable catalyst is pivotal to advancing ammonia cracking technology. KBR has an agnostic approach for selection of catalyst for H2ACT® technology. The approach focuses on a comprehensive catalyst evaluation framework that ensures optimal performance, longevity, and cost-effectiveness. Catalyst candidates are required to be screened through a combination of thermodynamic and kinetic modelling to predict their behaviour under varying operating conditions. Subsequently, critical parameters such as ammonia conversion efficiency, hydrogen purity, thermal stability, and resistance to deactivation over extended runs has to be evaluated. Selection criteria are grounded in achieving high catalytic activity at lower temperatures, minimal pressure drop, robustness against sintering and poisoning. The factors such as scalability, raw material availability, and environmental impact are also considered. Process optimization is carried out using detailed simulation tools that integrate catalyst performance data to fine-tune reactor design and operating conditions. This integrated strategy enables the selection of a catalyst that suits best to KBR’s H2ACT® technology.

This paper presents the details of KBR catalysts selection roadmap to ensure the most suitable catalyst for KBR’s ammonia cracking technology, H2ACT®.

Papers Presented on the Global Stage

Paper Presented by Uma Sankar Khan and Amarnath Chanda Roy at CRU Nitrogen + Syngas Conference, Barcelona, Feb 10–12

Successful Replacement of Old MWK Bayonet Boiler with the Latest Generation Vertical Floating Head Boiler

This paper highlights the successful replacement of aging MW Kellogg bayonet‑type waste heat boilers with KBR’s advanced single‑shell, one‑pass floating head boiler, a patented design now widely adopted across more than 40 ammonia plants worldwide. The study presents two case examples demonstrating the methodology and execution strategies behind these upgrades. Older bayonet boilers, many operating at up to 130% of their original design capacity, faced significant challenges such as refractory liner degradation, fouling, uneven heat transfer, rising tube heat flux, and frequent maintenance shutdowns, all of which compromised plant reliability and downstream catalyst protection. KBR’s modern floating‑head design overcomes these limitations by providing uniform heat transfer, improved fouling tolerance, reduced pressure drop, easier maintenance, and enhanced operational flexibility, including a bypass configuration for improved high‑temperature shift (HTS) inlet control. The resulting upgrades have enabled legacy ammonia plants to increase on‑stream factors, reduce unplanned downtime, and achieve higher operational efficiency—delivering a robust, future‑ready waste heat boiler solution for next‑generation ammonia production.