Venugopal Akula
Scientist
Chemical Technology
CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology
India
Biography
Dr Venugopal Akula, is currently supervising 6 PhD students in the area of heterogeneous catalysis on the effective utilization of biomass derived compounds in to fuels and fine chemicals. He is also working on COx free hydrogen production by CH4 decomposition and also on the development of catalysts for selective CO oxidation. Apart from this he has international collaborations on the production of syngas and its subsequent conversion to DME (a substitute for diesel). Dr Venugopal has expertise on identification of active sites by in situ characterization techniques.
Research Interest
Currently working on (1) COx free hydrogena production by catalytic decomposition of methane (2) Effective utilization of bio-glycerol to synthesize value added chemicals (3) Photocatalytic water splitting to produce H2 (4) Conversion of bio-mass derived compounds to fuels and fuel additives (5) MTO process (CSIR IICT-CSIRO Australia) collaborative research program (6) Exploration supported Au catalysts for low temperature CO conversions (CSIR IICT - RMIT Australia).
Publications
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Crude bio-glycerol as a hydrogen source for the selective hydrogenation of aromatic nitro compounds over Ru/ MgLaO catalyst Medak Sudhakar, Gutta Naresh, Gundeboina Rambabu, Chatla Anjaneyulu, Aytam Hari Padmasri, Mannepalli Lakshmi Kantam, Akula Venugopal* Catalysis Communications 74 (2016) 91-94.
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Vapor phase hydrogenation of aqueous levulinic acid over hydroxyapatite supported metal (M = Pd, Pt, Ru, Cu, Ni) catalysts. M. Sudhakar, V. Vijay Kumar, G. Naresh, M. Lakshmi Kantam, S.K. Bhargava and A. Venugopal* Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 180 (2016) 113-120.
