Pranit Metkar, a graduate research assistant in the UH Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was selected as a winner at the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Poster Session held during the 2011 AIChE Annual Meeting in Minneapolis for his poster entitled "Determination of Controlling Regimes for Various SCR Reactions on Zeolite Based Monolithic Catalysts."
As part of Professor Michael Harold’s research team, Metkar focuses on the area of catalytic reaction engineering with the objectives of reducing the emission of harmful pollutants like NOx in the atmosphere. NOx is considered to be highly detrimental to human beings as it is the cause of ground level ozone formation, a respiratory irritant responsible for a number of respiratory diseases. It is also a major cause of smog and acid rain formation.
Diesel engine vehicles are one of the biggest producers of harmful pollutants like NOx. Metkar is working on the catalyst technology used in catalytic converters in vehicular applications to reduce NOx emissions.
Metkar completed his undergraduate degree from the University Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai. He will complete his Ph.D. in summer 2012 and seeks an industrial research position.