Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Professor Sankar Bhattacharva has a strong background in industry and academia. Having started his career in India as a design and commissioning engineer for coal-fired power stations, he then worked in Thailand on the utilisation of agro-forestry residues for gaseous fuels production. Professor Bhattacharva came to Australia as a Principal Research Engineer with Lignite CRC and then as a Principal Process Engineer with Anglo Coal Australia. He then moved to France as a Senior Energy Analyst with the International Energy Agency in Paris managing their Cleaner Fossil Fuels program.
At Monash University, Professor Bhattacharva’s research area includes advanced coal and biomass utilisation for power and fuels production through gasification and combustion and biofuels including algae. He leads a group of 16 PhD students and two research fellows, and through his career has supervised 12 PhD students to completion.
He advises the Japanese Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry (METI) on low-rank coal utilisation and Clean Coal Victoria. He also advises and contributes to the International Energy Agency’s flagship publications and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as an expert reviewer. He also acts as a reviewer on refereed journals including Jülich - Germany and the South Africa Research Council. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Energy and a Member of the American Chemical Society.
Research interests
Professor Bhattacharva’s research interests includes advanced coal and biomass utilisation for power and fuels production through gasification and combustion, and the production of biofuels utilising biomass algae.
His research group is currently investigating:
- Entrained flow gasification - brown coal/biomass/algae/MSW and ash viscosity
- Liquid fuels and chemicals from brown coal
- Coal drying
Monash teaching commitment
ENE3048 - Energy and the environment
CHE5299 – Biorefinery Processes – MS level
CHE5188 - Advanced Reaction Engineering – MS level
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Research area keywords
- Gasification
- combustion
- biofuels
- catalysis
- coal
- biomass
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or
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Harnessing critical metals using end-of-life batteries and electrolysers
Bhattacharya, S. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Sam Thomas, B. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Freeman, B. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Bhattacharya, M. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Kulkarni, A. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Dutta, A. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Jeon, C.-H. (Partner Investigator (PI)) & Fukuda, S. (Partner Investigator (PI))
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (Australia)
1/10/25 → 16/03/28
Project: Research
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ARC Research Hub: ARC Research Hub for Value-Added Processing of Underutilised Carbon Waste
Zhang, L. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Konarova, M. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Chaffee, A. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Zhang, D. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Lindsay, J. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Bhattacharya, S. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Yu, Y. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Zeng, X. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Zhang, Z. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Wu, H. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Monsalve-Bravo, G. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Chen, P. (Chief Investigator (CI)), van 't Hag, L. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Hoadley, A. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Li, L. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Rong, J. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Wang, X. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Herring, J. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Edwards, J. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Bury, P. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Guha, S. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Nolan, P. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Geissdoerfer, M. (Chief Investigator (CI)), McCarthy, S. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Dai, B.-Q. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Zhang, Z. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Cass, P. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Proctor, G. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Wang, Q. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Meysztowicz, E. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Gutwein, K. (Project Manager), Peters, J. (Partner Investigator (PI)) & Dawkins, S. (Partner Investigator (PI))
Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Enzide Technologies Ltd, Ironwood Clean Energy Technologies Pty Limited (trading as: Carbon Technologies Australia), Huadian Electric Power Research Institute Company Limited, Suzhou Beyond Environmental Protection Technology Co Ltd, Urban Mining Industries Pty Ltd, VECCO Electric Pty Ltd, Canopy Blue Pty Ltd, Southeast University - Monash University Joint Research Institute, Suzhou
5/11/24 → 4/11/29
Project: Research
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Development of direct reduction technologies based on fluidized bed (FB) and circulating fluidized bed (CFB)
Kuang, S. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Bhattacharya, S. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Evans, T. (Partner Investigator (PI)) & Song, S. (Partner Investigator (PI))
1/07/24 → 1/07/29
Project: Research
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ARC Research Hub for Smart Process Design and Control
Bhattacharya, S. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Strezov, V. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Bao, J. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Wang, G. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Shen, Y. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Rudman, M. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Zhao, D. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Yan, W. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Chen, C. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Kuang, S. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Selomulya, C. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Yang, R. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Dong, K. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Zhu, H. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Zeng, Q. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Jiang, Y. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Steel, K. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Ma, X. (Chief Investigator (CI)), mingyuan, L. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Evans, T. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Song, S. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Mao, X. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Zhou, Z. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Qiu, T. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Sakai, M. (Partner Investigator (PI)), de Ryck, A. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Luding, S. (Partner Investigator (PI)) & Gutwein, K. (Chief Investigator (CI))
ARC - Australian Research Council, Monash University – Internal Faculty Contribution, Rio Tinto Services Limited (Australia)
10/01/24 → 10/01/29
Project: Research
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ARC Research Hub for Microrecycling of battery and consumer wastes
Sahajwalla, V. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Giurco, D. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Bhattacharya, S. (Chief Investigator (CI)), O'Mullane, A. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Tricoli, A. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Florin, N. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Perez, P. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Pahlevani, F. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Joshi, R. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Piadasa, A. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Tooze, I. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Boehme, T. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Boxall, N. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Sharma, N. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Maroufi, S. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Wang, H. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Bustamante, H. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Forsyth, M. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Prodromakis, T. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Malek, A. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Thomson, R. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Kalos, S. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Bell, G. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Evans, S. A. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Raveendran, S. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Lorenc, A. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Kerr, R. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Overton, W. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Fernandes, M. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Pozo-Gonzalo, C. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Check, K. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Klymenko, P. (Partner Investigator (PI)), Dudley, M. (Partner Investigator (PI)) & Chaplin, L. (Partner Investigator (PI))
1/09/20 → 17/01/26
Project: Research
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Application of graph neural networks in modeling volatile matter generation and internal gas pressure behavior during coking of coking coal blends
Zhao, P., Hui, Y., Qiu, Y., Dou, J., Bhattacharya, S., Dai, B. & Yu, J., 15 Feb 2026, In: Fuel. 406, Part A, 17 p., 136785.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access1 Citation (Scopus) -
Biomass gasification in an industrial-scale entrained flow gasifier and effects of various parameters on gasification performance: An approach based on numerical models
Das, K., Kumar, S. & Bhattacharya, S., 1 Feb 2026, In: Fuel. 405, Part B, 26 p., 136537.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access -
Surrogate model-integrated deep reinforcement learning for temperature and pyrolysis behavior control in the coal coking process
Zhao, P., Hui, Y., Qiu, Y., Dou, J., Bhattacharya, S., Dai, B. & Yu, J., 1 Feb 2026, In: Fuel. 405, Part D, 18 p., 136770.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access -
An exclusive CO2-to-CO converting single-stack electrolyzer driven by a biomass-derived N-doped carbon-based bimetallic electrocatalyst
Trivedi, V., Jain, S., Biswas, R., Dastider, S. G., Mondal, K., Bhattacharya, S., Vishal, V. & Dutta, A., 25 Mar 2025, In: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. 18, p. 13378-13390 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus) -
Crafting sustainable CO2 electrolyzers
Trivedi, V., Rajeshwaree, B., Biswas, R., Kashyap, M., Bhattacharya, S. & Dutta, A., 17 Sept 2025, In: Cell Reports Physical Science. 6, 9, 44 p., 102790.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access
Press/Media
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Monash develops resource recovery process for spent plastics
6/08/20
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research
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Powder coating: an unacknowledged waste stream
4/08/20
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Article/Feature