Dastur Innovation Labs (DIL), founded in Toronto in 2017, is the applied industrial research wing of Dastur – the global metals, mining and energy consultant. DIL carries out cutting edge technology-driven applied research on Ironmaking & Steelmaking, Oil & Gas, Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Gasification and Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS), and feedstock and fuel supply chains. It is committed towards development of industrial solutions that are innovative, sustainable and implementable.

The DIL global team – consisting of multidisciplinary experts in Process Modeling & Simulation, Materials/Mechanical/Chemical Engineering, Supply Chains & Logistics Science, Sensors and Automation, Computation, Statistics, ML/AI – work collaboratively with experts from both Industry and Academia. Dastur’s Indian and European offices have seasoned professionals with decades of industrial experience in process/operations, engineering, automation, supply chains and economics. DIL team has partnerships with or in the recent past has collaborated with the following institutions/organizations:

• Advanced Resources International, Washington, D.C., USA: Reservoir Modeling, Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) / Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Technologies
• LUMMUS Technology, Houston, Texas, USA: Process Model Development for Gasifiers, Chemical and Petrochemical Units
• University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA: Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilization
• University of Toronto at Toronto, Canada: Process Model Development for Iron & Steelmaking Processes
• Indian Institute of Engineering Science And Technology, Shibpur, India: Process Model Development for Iron & Steelmaking Processes
• MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Supply Chain Forum, Cambridge, MA : Supply chain optimization and simulations

DIL founding team of accomplished researchers in 2017 included:

• Dr. Kinnor Chattopadhyay, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, who is a recipient of the AIST Kent D. Peaslee Award (2016) and the CIM METSOC Brimacombe Award (2016).
• Dr. Saikat Chatterjee: a 3-time (2015-2017) winner of the AIST Smith Graduate Scholarship, and recipient of the US Steel Fellowship (2016) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Scholarship from 2012-2016.
• Dr. Anand Senguttuvan: recipient of the 2014 AIST Jerry Silver best paper award, the prestigious Dante-Cosma as well as the Stelco-McMaster scholarship.
• Dr. Donghui Li: Process Metallurgist, with 20+ years’ experience in heat and mass transfer, turbulent fluid flow, thermodynamics and CFD applications in process metallurgy, specialized in metal continuous casting process, including extra-thin strip casting, slab and billet casting.

The DIL team is currently led by Dr. Saikat Chatterjee, under the able guidance of Atanu Mukherjee, President & CEO of Dastur who is also DIL’s Principal Investigator. Abhijit Sarkar, Vice President of Dastur’s Advisory Business, oversees process techno-economics as well as DIL’s liaisons with partners and funding organizations. Dr. Sudeb Dutta, a seasoned Utility expert, helps the team in designing systems for gas cleaning/control/mixing/storage and air separation. The DIL process simulation team, consisting of Dr. Anand Senguttuvan, Saptarshi Bhattacharya, Raghav Mittal and Ragunath N, are focussed on development of large scale models of industrial processes including Blast Furnace Ironmaking, BOF/EAF Steelmaking, Gas Processing, Pre- & Post-Carbon Capture, Compression, Transportation, Storage and Utilization.

At DIL we are always looking to creatively tackle challenges faced by our customers using lab-scale models and large-scale simulations of their operations, while minimizing costly trial-run and stoppages. These have led to significant improvements in product quality, production volumes and material consumption, translating into measurable cost reductions and profitability improvements for clients.

DIL’s industrial solutions are based on the fundamental principles of engineering, multi-scale process modeling, fluid dynamics, mass & energy balance, high temperature thermochemistry and rate kinetics coupled with data analytics, process economics and operational expertise. Few examples include:

• Evaluation and Design of CO2 Capture, Compression and Transportation architecture for a Hyper-scale CO2-EOR project.
• CO2 Capture from Blast Furnace Gas in Steel Plants in a Production-Cost Neutral Manner (Ongoing).
• Optimization of Secondary Emissions Capture of BOF/EAF through design modifications using Computational Fluid Dynamic Modeling.
• Design of a novel process for enhanced ore recovery through Computational Fluid Dynamic Modeling.
• Design of a Blast Furnace Thermal State Index using an Advanced Statistical Model.
• Ladle Circuit Optimization for reduced refractory wear, energy consumption and carbon emissions through a coupled ‘heat transfer + logistics + data analytics’ model.
• Designing an alternative flux for liquid steel desulphurization based on computational thermodynamics and rate kinetics.
• Development of a predictive model for minimizing ladle desulfurization cycle time and associated costs.

DIL team members have published thought-provoking articles in various forums, including:

• Peer-reviewed Journals: Fuel, Met. Trans. B, ISIJ Intl., JECS , Ironmaking & Steelmaking and Carbon Capture Journal
• International Conference Proceedings: AIST Transactions, METEC-ESTAD, ASIA Steel, IBAAS, ISCOBA, Steel Tech and NMDC Intl. Conf. on Min. & Metals Outlook
• Magazines: Coal Insights and Economic Times

The team has also conducted/presented in workshops with/at the following organizations/institutions:

• United States Department of Energy (US DOE)
• The National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC), USA
• NITI Aayog (Government of India)
• International Energy Agency (IEA), USA
• Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers (Government of India)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT (USA)

Publications

• Mukherjee, A., Maity, A., Chatterjee, S.,. Enabling a gasification and carbon capture economy in India: An integrated techno-economic analysis, Fuel 263 (2020): 116595.
• Mittal, R., Mukherjee, A., Adabala S., Ragunath, N., Sinha S., Bose S., Chatterjee S., (2020) Development of a Real-Time Thermal State Index of Blast Furnace using Advanced Statistical Learning Techniques, accepted at AISTech Conference ’20.
• Das, A., Chatterjee, S., Mukherjee, A., (2020) Efficient Determination of Misalignment of Ladle Shroud using Machine Vision, Iron & Steel Technology, Sep 2020.
• Maity, A., Bhattacharya S., Bose S., Chatterjee S., Mukherjee, A., Evaluation of techno-economic viability of carbon capture utilization and storage (CCU&S) with carbon credits for steel plants, Assoc. Iron Steel Technol. (2019): 83-96.
• Maity, A., Bhattacharya S., Bose S., Chatterjee S., Mukherjee, A., Evaluation of pre-combustion carbon capture for coal gasification and direct reduction (DR) plants, METEC-ESTAD Proceedings (2019).
• Chatterjee S., Senguttuvan, A., Biswal, A., Adak, A., Mandal. T, Mittal, R., Ishwar. P., Sinha, K.K., Mukherjee, A., Ladle circuit optimization through simulations for reduced refractory wear, energy consumption and carbon emissions, METEC-ESTAD Proceedings (2019).
• A. Mukherjee, Carbon capture & Coal Gasification can be a game changer for India, Article published in Economic Times Energy World, March 2019.
• Mittal, R., Senguttuvan, A., Chatterjee, S.,, Mukherjee, A., (2019) Development of a predictive model for minimizing ladle desulfurization cycle time and associated costs, AISTech Conference Proceedings, pp. 2161-2174.
• Chatterjee S., Coal Gasification & Carbon Capture Technologies for the Energy and Chemicals Industry. Presented at Workshop on Enabling a Carbon Capture based sustainable energy and chemicals industry through gasification of coal at Dept. of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Govt. of India, 2019.
• Adak, A., Das, A., Chatterjee, S., Senguttuvan, A., Mukherjee, A., (2019) Analytics - The Way Forward for Optimization of Dephosphorization Practice in BOF Shops, Iron & Steel Technology, pp. 74-80.
• Senguttuvan, A., Chalavadi, G., Singh, R., Das, A., (2019) CFD Simulation of Dry Density Separation of Iron Ore Fines, AISTech Conference Proceedings, pp. 701-711.
• Senguttuvan, A., Chatterjee, S., (2019) CFD analysis of Capture Efficiency of Secondary Off-gas in an EAF shop, 4th ESTAD, Dusseldorf, Germany.
• A. Mukherjee, Gasification “better pathway to CCS in India”, Carbon Capture Journal, Issue 66, Nov/Dec 2018
• Mukherjee, A., Chattopadhyay, K. (2018) The New Economics of Steel, Steel Times International Jun 2018.
• Ragunath, N., Konar. B., Maity. A., Chatterjee, S., Senguttuvan, A., Chattopadhyay, K., (2018) Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) slag: Turning waste into value, AISTech Conference Proceedings 2018.
• S. Bhattacharya, S. Bose, S. Chatterjee, A. Mukherjee. Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage in India: Preparing for the Future. NMDC, International Conference on Min. & Met Outlook for 2030, New Delhi, India, 2018.
• Chatterjee, S., Li, D., Chattopadhyay K.,. Modeling of Liquid Steel/Slag/Argon Gas Multiphase Flow During Tundish Open Eye Formation in a Two-Strand Tundish, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, 49, pages 756–766(2018).
• Chattopadhyay, K., Patel, M., Chatterjee, S., (2018) Transport phenomena and thermodynamics in the tundish- Why should we care and how do they relate to product quality?, ASIA STEEL 2018 Conference Proceedings.
• Chattopadhyay, K., Chatterjee, S., (2018) Quality improvements in a multistrand billet caster tundish: Triangle tied approach using simulation, plant trials and economics, ASIA STEEL 2018 Conference Proceedings.
• Chatterjee, S., Yu, D., Gao, L., Mambakkam, V., Alicandri, R., Chattopadhyay, K., (2018) SPL: Turning waste into value, IBAAS 2018 Conference Proceedings, pp. 137-152.
• Mambakkam, V., Alicandri, R., Chatterjee, S., Gao, L., Yu, D., Chattopadhyay, K., (2018) SPL and Red Mud: Value Creation from Hazardous Wastes, ISCOBA 2018 Conference Proceedings.
• Senguttuvan, A., Irons, G. A., (2017), Modeling of Slag Entrainment and Interfacial Mass Transfer in Gas Stirred Ladles, ISIJ Intl., Vol. 57, pp 1962-1970.
• Mukherjee, A., Adak, A., (2015) Optimizing Steel Melt Shop Operations using an Iterative Hierarchical Decomposition based Discrete Event Simulation Model, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications (SIMULTECH-2015), pages 111-117.
• Mukherjee, A., Som, A., Adak, (2012) Reducing Wagon Turnaround Times by Redesigning the Outbound Disptch Operations of a Steel Plant, Proceedings of the 2013 Winter Simulation Conference.
• Mukherjee, A., Som, A., Adak, A., Raj, P., Kirtania, S., (2012) Augmenting and inbound raw material handling system of a steel plant by uncovering hidden logistics capacity, Proceedings of the 2012 Winter Simulation Conference.

Presentations at Workshops

• A. Mukherjee. Enabling a Clean Coal based Energy and Chemicals Ecosystem in India through Gasification and Carbon Capture. Presented to the US DOE, Washington DC, 2019.
• A. Mukherjee. Presentation on Sustainable Coal Gasification for the Chemicals Industry – Economics, Scale, Substitution, Trade and Policy at Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Govt. of India, July 2019.
• Chatterjee S., Coal Gasification & Carbon Capture Technologies for the Energy and Chemicals Industry. Presented at Workshop on Enabling a Carbon Capture based sustainable energy and chemicals industry through gasification of coal at Dept. of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Govt. of India, 2019.
• A. Mukherjee, Workshop on enabling a Coal Gasification and Carbon Capture based Economy with a CGE and market assessment model of Methanol, DME, Urea and Ammonia at NITI Aayog, Govt. of India, 2018.

Presentations at Conferences

• A. Mukherjee. Enabling a Clean Coal based Energy and Chemicals Ecosystem in India through Gasification and Carbon Capture. Presented to the US DOE, Washington DC, 2019.
• S. Chatterjee, S. Bhattacharya, A. Maity, A. Mukherjee. Utility of Carbon Capture & Storage in India. Presented at Steel Tech Conference, Kolkata, India, 2019.
• S. Chatterjee. Cost-Effective Techniques for Recovering Iron and Phosphorus from Steelmaking Slag. Presented at SEAISI Conference, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2018.
• A. Mukherjee. Presentation on Powering the Indian Economy through a Competitive & Resilient Steel Industry. Met Coke Summit, Pittsburgh USA 19 Oct 2016.
• A. Mukherjee. Presentation on Powering the Indian Economy through a Competitive & Resilient Steel Industry. EuroCoke Summit, Barcelona, Spain 2016.