RESEARCH INTERESTS

BASIC RESREACH

  • The synthesis of different type of bifunctional zeolite catalysts and its application to an oxidative conversion/ non-oxidative conversion of methane, ethane and natural gas and organic oxygenate (methanol, ethanol, etc.) to an easily transportable value added liquid hydrocarbons such as gasoline, etc.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44, 438 (2005) and US patent No. 7,022888 on 05 April, 2006 WO 2004/087624 A1, October 14, 2004

This research work given Wide Publicity on International NCL web site, Front page of Times of India News Paper dated 26 Nov. 2005. My Interview release on Akaswani Pune in Marathi.

  • Alkylation of aromatic substrates over the different type of micro porous and mesoporous zeolite catalysts such as ZSM-12, ZSM-5, Mordenite, SSZ-53 zeolites, MgO-AlPO-5, CaO-AlPO-5, SrO-AlPO-5, BaO-AlPO-5, ZAPO-5 etc.

  • Catalytic /non-catalytic energy efficient oxidative conversion of methane, ethane and natural gas to olefins over a large number of unsupported and supported metal oxides with or without pre-coating them by other metal oxides, on commercial low surface area porous catalyst carriers as supports.

  • Trans-alkylation reactions, xylene isomerization, C5-C7 aromatisation over different type zeolite catalysts.

  • The application of heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts to different organic transformation for fine chemicals such as carbonylation, acylation, alkylation, olefin oxidation to epoxide etc. and synthesis, characterisation of ionic liquid and its applications to organic transformation.


APPLIED RESEARCH

  • Oxycracking of ethane and propane to ethylene sponsored by GAIL, New Delhi.
  • Catalytic dehydration of alcohol to ethylene sponsored by Vinyl Chemical Ltd., Mumbai
  • 4-Methoxyacetophenone (4 MAP) by Catalytic Acylation sponsored by Atul Ltd., Ankleshwar, Gujrat, India
  • Epichlorohydrin (ECH) Process

The main objective of the R & D project was to develop green, environmentally friendly technology for production of the epichlorohydrin by the oxidation of allylchloride using solid catalysts in a fixed bed tubular column reactor and to also establish downstream separation process (which backbone of Epichlorohydrin techonology) to purify epichlorohydrin from its impurity and unreacted allylchloride. To achieve the above-mentioned novel objective the compressive studies have been carried out with respect to the various process parameters (temperature, Allylchloride/hydrogenperoxie mole ratio, Allylchloride/methanol mole ratio, product mixture/water mole etc. required established cold extraction method) to optimize the reaction condition required for the plant operation. Based on compressive studies of data generated on Bench scale (15g TS-1 catalysts) Pilot plant scale (800g TS-1 catalysts),a epichlorohydrin Pilot Plant of capacity 3000 tone/year established in Thio Organic chemical Co. Ltd, Thioland by Adithy Birla Group.  Epichlorohydrin Plant is shown in following image.

 


SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PATENTS 

  1.  V. R. Choudhary, K. C. Mondal and S. A. R. Mulla, “Simultaneous Conversion of Methane and Methnol in Gasoline over Bifunctional Ga, In, and/ or Mo-Modified ZSM-5 Zeolites” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44, 438 (2005).  US patent No. 7,022888 on 05 April, 2006This work is published on NCL international web sites and also in Times of India dated 26 Nov. 2005.
  2. V.R.Choudhary, B.S.Uphade and S.A.R.Mulla, ”Coupling of endothermic thermal cracking with exothermic oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene using a diluted SrO/La2O3/SA-5205 catalyst”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 34, 665 (1995).
  3. S. A. R. Mulla, O. V. Buyevskaya and M. Baerns, “Autothermal Oxidative Dehydrogeantion of Ethane to Ethylene over SryLa1.0Nd1,0Ox”, J. Catal. 197, 43 (2001).
  4. S. A. R. Mulla, O. V. Buyevskaya and M. Baerns, "A Comparative Study of Non-Catalytic and Catalytic Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane to Ethylene", Appl. Catal. A: Gen. 226, 73(2002).
  5. V. R. Choudhary, S. A. R. Mulla and S. Banerjee, “Aromatization of n-heptane over H-AlMFI, Ga/H-AlMFI, H-GaMFI and H-GaAlMFI zeolite catalysts: influence of zeolitic acidity and non-framework gallium” Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 57, 317 (2003).
  6. S. A. R. Mulla, S. K. Saha, H. Maekawa, S. B. Waghmode, K. Komura, Y. Kubota, Y. Sugi and Sung June Cho “Zincoaluminophosphate Molecular Sieves with AFI and ATS Topologies: Synthesis by Dry-Gel Conversion Methods and Their Catalytic Properties in the Isopropylation of Biphenyl”, Materials Transactions 46(12), 2659(2005)
  7. S. A. R. Mulla, S. W. Waghmode, S. Watanabe, H. Maekawa, K. Komura, Y. Kubota, Y. Sugi, Jong-Ho Kim and G. Seo, “ Vapour-Phase Ethylation of Biphenyl over MTW Zeolites” Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn. 79(9), 1451 (2006)
  8. S. A. R. Mulla, S. K. Shaha, S. W. Waghmode, H. Maekawa, K. Komura, Y. Kubota, Y. Sugi,, “ Shape-Selective Alkylation of Biphenyl over Metalloaluminophosphates with AFI topology” J. Mol. Catal. A: Chemical 263, 238 (2006).
  9. S.A.R. Mulla, S.P. Gupte and R. V. Chaudhari, "Alkoxy carbonylation of aniline using homogeneous catalysts" J.Mol.Cat., 67(1991) L7-L10.

 

SELECTED US PATENTS GRANTED

  1. V. R. Choudhary, K. C. Mondal and S. A. R. Mulla, “Process for the simultaneous conversion of methane   and organic oxygenate to  C2 - C10 hydrocarbons and hydrogen using a bifunctional pentasil zeolite catalyst”. US patent granted under US Patent No. 7,022888 on 05 April, 2006.
  2. V. R. Choudhary, B. S. Uphade, S. A. R. Mulla, ” Supported Catalyst with mixed lanthanum and other rare earth oxides” US patent granted under US Patent No. 5,712,217 on 27 January, 1998.
  3.  V. R. Choudhary, A. M. Rajput and S. A. R. Mulla, ” An improved process for the production of ethylene by non-catalytic oxidative cracking of ethane or ethane rich C2 - C4 paraffin”, US patent granted under US Patent No. 5,763,725 on 9 June, 1998.