Illinois Sustainable Technology Center - University of Illinois
INRS State Scientific Surveys
B.K. Sharma
Senior Research Engineer
One East Hazelwood Drive
Champaign, Illinois 61820
phone: 217-265-6810
fax: 217-333-8944
bksharma@illinois.edu
Research Interests
Bio-energy research
- Alternative non-food feedstocks for 2nd and 3rd generation biofuels
- Improving sustainability and extraction efficiency for oily feedstocks using greener solvents and improved methods
- Thermo-chemical conversion of non-food, non-usable oleochemical feedstocks biofuels byproducts, waste biomass and products to form green diesel and bio crude oils
- Bio crude oil characterization using various chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques Upgradation of bio-oils and biochar through catalytic process, extraction, and other processes
- Formulation of biobased lubricants with synergistic additive combinations
- Chemical modification of vegetable oils for improving oxidation and low temperature properties
- Biobased additives through modification of vegetable oils
- Better understanding of low temperature and oxidation properties of base oils
- Structure-property correlation development
- Thermo-chemical conversions of waste oleochemical materials: Developed method for pyrolytic cracking of oleochemical feedstock for synthesizing green diesels
- Chemical modification of triacylglycerols of vegetable oils for improvement in oxidation and low temperature stability, and also for introducing functionalities that can be used as biobased lubricant additives. Discovered methods for the synthesis of sulfur containing hydroxy triacylglycerol as lubricant additive, and branched hydroxy esters as base oils; Developed chemically modified vegetable oils with improved performance as lubricant base oils
- Formulation of biobased lubricants: Optimized a synergistic combination of additives for biobased lubricants; Developed biobased lubricant formulations for elevator hydraulic fluids, metal working fluids, bio-undercarriage oils (gear oils), bio-based greases
- Developing new physical and chemical analytical methods for vegetable oils, lubricating base oils, petroleum heavy residues to provide technical problem solving such as better understanding of low temperature and oxidation properties of oils: Developed NMR and HPDSC methods for detailed analysis of lubricant base oils; Developed separation and characterization methodology to characterize petroleum heavy residue using HPLC, GC, TLC-FID, SEC, NMR and FTIR.
- Correlation development of generated data with various important physico-chemical properties and performance properties of lubricating oils and property predictions using statistical and neural software.
- 1999-present, Member, American Chemical Society
- 2003-present, Member, Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE)
- 2009-present, Chair, Environmentally Friendly Fluids Techical Committee (EFFTC)
- 2007-2010, Vice-Chair, STLE Lubrication Fundamentals Technical Committee (LFTC)
- 2003-2009, Paper Solicitation Chair, STLE EFFTC
- 2003-2007, Paper Solicitation Chair, STLE LFTC
- 2003-2009, Member, American Oil Chemists' Society
- 2004-2007, Member, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
- Visiting Research Chemist at National Center for Agricultural Utilization-Agricultural Research Service-USDA, Peoria, IL and Penn State University (2002-2009) on developing biobased lubricants;
- Post-doctoral Researcher at State University of New York - College of Environmental Science & Forestry, Syracuse, NY (1999-2002) on petroleum base oil research; and
- Post-doctoral Research Associate (1998-1999), Sr. Research Fellow (1995-1998), Junior Research Fellow (1993-1995) at Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, India.
Citations for Dr. Sharma's most recent publications are available at http://www.refworks.com/refshare?site=023461151726400000/RWWS6A455625/Sharma%2C%20B.K.