Dr. L. M. Das took his Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Rourkela in 1970 and M. Tech degree from the, Kharagpur in 1972.
His primary areas of research interest include development of alternative-fuelled low emission engine/vehicles. He has published more than 80 research papers in various independently refereed international and national journals in the area of alternative fuels such as Hydrogen, CNG, Biodiesel and Hydrogen-CNG blend. One of his paper “Research Issues in Development of Bio-Diesel Engines’ has been published by The Energy and Resources Institute, 2006. Two of his other papers “Fuel Induction Techniques for a Hydrogen-operated engine†and “Safety Aspects of a Hydrogen-Engine System Development†have been published in a book titled ‘Hydrogen Fuel for Surface Transportation’ published by Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc (USA).
Today he is actively involved in several sponsored research projects and has supervised 14 PhD theses (with ten more in progress), and about forty M. Tech Projects in his areas of interest. Hydrogen Engines has been and remains his first love of research for more than two decades. He obtained his PhD from IIT Delhi in 1987 in the area of hydrogen engine and ever since then has been assiduously pursuing R&D activities in this area. He is a member of Advisory Board forn International Association of Hydrogen Energy (USA). He was invited to participate and share his research experiences, thoughts and implementation schemes on Hydrogen energy in the UNIDO meetings held in New York (June 2008), Moscow (April 2008), Istanbul (2005), and Philippines (2004). He had also delivered keynote address on this subject in the UNIDO-ICHET (International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technology) at Istanbul (2004), and was invited to participate in the Expert Group meeting on Hydrogen as an Energy Alternative for Developing Countries organized by UNIDO-APCTT (Asian Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology) in 1992. He was a Member, Expert Group on Transportation constituted by the Steering Group of the National Hydrogen Energy Board, India (2004) as well as a Member of the CAR (Core group of Automotive Research) of the Govt of India (2003-2004). He is the Convener of the Technical Committee of the World Hydrogen Technology Convention slated for August 2009 at New Delhi.
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A strong believer in practical system development, Dr Das has had several consultancy/projects sponsored by UNIDO, General Motors (USA), Shell India, MNRE, and DST. His R&D contribution has been appreciated and a project entitled “OPTFUEL†has been sanctioned by European Union that involves IITD (CES, Engines and Unconventional Fuels lab) as a partner along with ten other Automobile giants/research labs of Europe.
With an effort to transfer the technology from lab to land, Dr Das, in collaboration with Mahindra and Mahindra, has successfully modified one of their three-wheelers to total hydrogen operation. This unit was demonstrated in the Auto Expo 2008 in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. He has participated in several international conferences in USA, Japan, France, Australia, Singapore, Bangkok and presented research papers on the subject. He was awarded “Rajiv Gandhi Samman†by Department of Science and Technology, Government of Orissa, as an Exemplary Scientist and Educationist for Achievements and contributions in the field of Non-conventional Energy Sources (2005).
Dr. Das has close international research interaction. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of California, Riverside during 2000-2001. He has also worked as a Consultant at the Thornton Research Centre, Chester, England. He also had visiting researcher assignments at INRETS, Lyon, France (1993) and at the Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon in 1994. During his assignments abroad he was involved in research investigations in several frontier areas of research such as Hydrogen-operated Vehicular Engines (USA), Automotive Vehicular Exhaust Emission (France), Laser Diagnostics of CARS (Coherent Antistoke Raman Spectroscopy) technique to quantify in internal combustion engines (England).