Avishek Goel

I am Avishek and I trace my roots back to India. Currently, I am working as a doctoral researcher in the Bio and Circular Economy research group at Tampere University. For my doctoral studies, I am working on Chemical Looping Gasification (CLG) for converting biomass waste to high-quality syngas. The broader objective of this study will be to design a reactor for optimized CLG of varied biomass (including waste) using waste chemical looping material (oxygen carrier) obtained from metal industries.

Before I started my doctoral research, I worked as an R&D/Process Engineer at GI Dynamics, Netherlands. I worked with the process engineering team to design and develop an industrial scale Reduced-Derived Fuels to bio-methanol plant based on High-Temperature Winkler (HTW) gasification technology. During my tenure at GI Dynamics, we developed a few patents and I was the co-inventor of the gasification technology/process.

In August 2020, I completed my master’s education in Mechanical Engineering at the Process & Energy department of TU Delft, Netherlands. For my thesis, I worked in the domain of Supercritical Water Gasification (SCWG). My master’s thesis involved designing a novel biorefinery for SCWG of wet biomass waste streams including cattle manure, fruit/vegetable waste, and cheese whey.

Furthermore, I have comprehensive R&D and project management experience as a Research Associate with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India. During my tenure at TERI, I researched, designed, developed, and implemented decentralized 2-stage power gasification, fixed bed thermal gasification, torrefaction, pyrolysis, and agricultural waste management technologies.

Moreover, I completed my bachelor’s of engineering in Mechanical Engineering (2011-15) from Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani-Dubai, UAE. During my bachelor’s, the specialization was centred on the Designing and Optimization of Gas-Fired Furnaces.

• Thermochemical conversion of biomass (including waste) conversion to energy/fuel
• Gasification of biomass
• Chemical Looping
• Thermodynamic and Process modelling 

• Best Young Biomass Researcher - Awarded best young researcher award at World Sustainable Energy Days conference for publication on performance evaluation of traditional and improved biomass cookstoves in rural Guatemala
• International Clean Energy Challenge: 33 under 33 - 33 young professionals and researchers under the age of 33 were invited to find fresh solutions and new ideas of sustainable energy to tackle the problem of climate change through collaborative thinking across disciplines.

Bio and Circular Economy

• Biomass chemical looping gasification for high-quality syngas: A critical review and technological outlooks, Energy Conversion and Management (2022)
• Patent: Process and apparatus for producing synthesis gas through thermochemical conversion of biomass and waste materials (2022)
• Patent: A method for industrial production of renewable synthetic fuels (under review), European Patent Office (2021)
• Supercritical water gasification of wet biomass residues from farming and food production practices: lab-scale experiments and comparison of different modelling approaches, Sustainable Energy and Fuels (2020)
• Performance evaluation of traditional and improved biomass cookstoves in rural Guatemala (best publication award), Young Energy Researchers Conference - World Sustainable Energy Days, Austria (2020)
• Book: Rubber Technology, Wood Head Publishing India (2019) 
• Circular Economy: A Business Imperative for India, Yes Bank Limited and TERI (2018)