Storage and Hybridization of Nuclear Energy: Techno-economic Integration of Renewable and Nuclear Energy

Professor Hitesh Bindra obtained his undergraduate education in chemical engineering from Panjab University (India) in 2002. He then worked as scientific officer for an Indian Government undertaking on nuclear power projects from 2002 to 2005. In 2005, he moved to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to pursue graduate studies in nuclear engineering. During his stay at University of Illinois, he simultaneously worked at simulation center of Caterpillar, Inc. After receiving his doctoral degree in 2010, he moved to City University of New York Energy Institute for postdoctoral research on thermal energy storage and high temperature systems. His research work at CUNY led to several inventions and their further commercialization. Bindra joined Kansas State in spring 2014 and has established a Nuclear Energy Systems Transport (Nu-EST) Laboratory. He has more than 14 years of research and development experience in nuclear/thermal engineering and has been involved in several industrial and academic research projects.

Professor Bindra’s research interests are in understanding and advancing the passive safety of nuclear reactors, high temperature energy systems and thermal storage. Research activities in his group, Nu-EST lab, focus on understanding micro to macro scale transport of matter and radiation. His research lab investigates complex thermo-fluid physics such as multiphase flow and thermal transport and complex fluid-solid interactions under high temperature and chemical reactions. Current research projects include advancing the high temperature gas-cooled reactors and thermal energy storage supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation.

Shripad T. Revankar is a Professor of Nuclear Engineering in the School of Nuclear Engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He is also BK21 Plus Visiting Professor in the Division of Advanced Nuclear Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea. He received his BS (1975), MS (1977) and Ph.D. (1983) in Physics from Karnatak University, India and M.Eng. (1982) in Nuclear Engineering from McMaster University, Canada. He has worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and at the Nuclear Engineering Department of University of California, Berkeley from 1984 to 1987. Prof. Revankar has over 35 years (post Ph.D.) of research experience in advanced reactor systems, reactor safety, reactor thermalhydraulics, composite fuel for advanced nuclear reactors, instrumentation, multi-phase flow and heat transfer, microgravity multiphase flow, direct energy conversion, hybrid power systems, nuclear hydrogen generation, solar energy storage, packed bed reactor, renewable energy, and fuel cell technology. His research focused on advancing safety and innovative designs in nuclear reactor systems has been important in the analysis of complex two-phase flow phenomena in primary coolant system of a reactor during accident scenario, in the designs of passively safe reactor concepts, and in the development of advanced multiphase flow sensors and instrumentation. He has published over 350 peer reviewed technical articles in archival scientific journals and conference proceedings and author/coauthor of two recent books: Advances in Nuclear Fuels, InTech, ISBN 978-953-51-0042-3, February 2012, Fuel Cells-Principles, Design, and Analysis, CRC Press ISBN 978-1-42-008968-4, June 2014. He has served as research and educational consultant to academia, national laboratories and industries in Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, and USA. He is Chief Editor of Frontier in Energy- Nuclear Energy and Chief Editor of International Journal of Magnetism & Nuclear Science He is also on editorial boards of other six international journals including Heat Transfer Engineering, Journal of Thermodynamics, Nuclear Engineering and Technology, and has served as Guest editor for Nuclear Engineering and Design. He is Life Member of American Nuclear Society (ANS), American Society of Mechanical Engineer (ASME), American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), Korean Nuclear Society, (KNS), and Indian Society for Heat and Mass Transfer (ISHMT). He is also member of American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), Electro Chemical Society (ECS) and American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was Chair of Thermal Hydraulics Division of ANS in 2007-08, Chair of ASME K-13 Committee on Heat Transfer in Multiphase Systems in 2009-11, Executive Member of the AIChE Transport and Energy Processes Division in 2006-2009, and Chair of the ASEE Nuclear and Radiological Division in 2008-2009. He was elected as Fellow of ASME in 2008, Fellow of ANS in 2015 and Fellow of AIChE in 2017.