Prof. Suneet Singh is currently Head of the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Idaho National Lab in the U.S. before joining IIT Bombay. He did his PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He graduated with a master’s in nuclear engineering and technology in 2000 from IIT Kanpur. His research focuses on efficient numerical techniques for neutron diffusion and fluid flow. Along with this, he has been investigating bifurcations in a number of systems, including nuclear coupled thermal hydraulics and two-phase flows fluids. In 2014, he was awarded the Bhaskara Advanced Solar Energy (BASE) fellowship by the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF). He also received the S. P. Sukhatme Award for Teaching Excellence at IIT Bombay in 2023.
As the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship for Academic and Professional Excellence Scholar at Purdue University, IN, Prof. Singh is working on understanding pathways for hydrogen and heat generation along with power generation. Nuclear power stations (NPPs) release no greenhouse gases when in operation, emitting approximately the same amount of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per unit of electricity as wind and solar energy. Load following is a technique by which power plants alter their power production in response to daily fluctuations in demand and energy prices. Because of the high construction cost of NPPs, they are typically not intended for load following and are classified as base load plants. As a result, their use for hydrogen and/ or heat generation during low-load periods provides both economic and environmental benefits.