IITKGP
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Agricultural and Food Engineering

Faculty

P Srinivasa Rao, IIT Kharagpur

P Srinivasa Rao

Professor

Agricultural and Food Engineering

+91-3222-283164

psrao@agfe.iitkgp.ac.in

Awards and Accolades

Personal Webpage Bio Sketch

Research Areas

  • Processing and value addition of millets
  • Process Equipment Design and Development
  • Post Harvest & Food Process Engineering
  • Nonthermal Methods of Food Processing
  • Extraction & Encapsulation of Bioactives
The major focus of my research group is non-thermal methods of food processing, which includes high pressure processing, light processing, ultrasound processing, membrane processing, etc. In addition, cereal and food grain processing is the second segment of research in our group, under which, research related to extrusion processing, advanced drying methods, value addition of cereals and other grains, design, development of process equipment and grain storage structures.
The current research areas of my research group are:
Non-thermal-extraction and encapsulation of bioactives
Modification of protein-starch interactions in wheat flour
Design and development of improved storage structures and evaluation of quality changes
Processing and value addition of millets and shelf life enhancement
Apart from strategic research activity, the importance of enterprising the research output was realized and a dedicated business incubation centre named “Agri Food Business Incubation Centre” was established to support startups in agri and food processing. The business incubation centre is a funded by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare, under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY-RAFTAAR). The above business incubation centre is first of its kind in the IIT system, which is focused on mentoring innovation led agricultural and food business startups.
Our facilities include high pressure processing system (HPP-Food Lab), twin screw extrusion systems (laboratory and pilot  scale), cold extrusion system, retort processing system, food dehydration systems, DV III Ultra viscometer, HPLC, UV-VIS spectrophotometers, colorimeter, lyophilizer, automatic kjeldahl, rapid soxhlet and crude fiber estimation systems, refrigerated centrifuge, electrophoresis systems, modular deep freezer (minus 40 °C), modular cool chamber (5-30 °C), halogen moisture analyzer,  rotary vacuum evaporator, binocular, florescent and stereo-zoom microscope, laminar flow chamber, high speed pulverser, sieve analysis facility, impulse sealer, vacuum sealing machine etc. In addition, several thrust area facilities like millet and pulses processing, bakery processing units, vacuum frying system, skid mounted liquid pasteurization system, packaging systems etc are on anvil to establish.
All Publications
  • Aloe vera gel filleting machine and a method for filleting (Patent No: 310723) by Ramachandra C. T., Rao P. S. - (2019)
  • Effect of processing on storage stability of millet flour: A review by Sruthi N.U., Rao P.S. Trends in Food Science and Technology 112 58-74 (2021)
  • Impact of UV-C irradiation on solubility of Osborne protein fractions in wheat flour by Kumar A., Nayak R., Purohit S.R., Rao P.S. Food Hydrocolloids 110 105845- (2021)
  • Extrusion of fermented rice-black gram flour for development of functional snacks: Characterization, optimization and sensory analysis by Poonam R., Amit K. , Purohit S. , Rao P. S. Journal of Food Science and Technology 58 494-509 (2021)
Completed Projects

Principal Investigator

  • Assessing Driage Needs for Optimal Paddy Milling Outturn Ratio across India Food Corporation of India
  • Development of a new integrated milling and separation process for efficient dry fractionation of chickpeas Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC), Apex Committee of SPARC, Ministry of Education
  • Development of Millet based Beer and Whisky SJNKO ORGANICS LLP

Co-Principal Investigator

  • AICRP on Post- Harvest Engineering & Technology IIT, Kharagpur (other than Salaries) ICAR
  • AICRP on Post- Harvest Engineering & Technology IIT, Kharagpur (other than Salaries) ICAR
  • AICRP on Post- Harvest Engineering & Technology IIT, Kharagpur-I (salaries) ICAR
  • AICRP on Post- Harvest Engineering & Technology IIT, Kharagpur-I (salaries) ICAR
Alumni members

Ph. D. Students

Abhishek Kumar

Area of Research: Drying of herbs and medicinal plants

Ankit Kumar

Area of Research: Extraction of bioactives from plant and food sources

Antara Chatterjee

Area of Research: Environmental impacts of seaweed cultivation and by-product recovery

Heena Sudhakar Kamdi

Area of Research: Process Design for Frying of Foods

Katu Yogesh Arun

Area of Research: Refrigeration

Meena N

Area of Research: Design and development of a novel drying process for food materials

Prashant Kumar

Area of Research: Plant based alterative proteins

Puja Nelluri

Area of Research: Processing of meat analogues using plant proteins

Rahul Kumar Rout

Area of Research: Extraction and encapsulation of active compounds

Sanjana Gautam

Area of Research: Mechanization of millet processing

Saptadip Miatur

Area of Research: Millets Processing and Storage

Shagolshem Mukta Singh

Area of Research: Mechanization of millet processing

Yaghuvendra Kumar

Area of Research: Grain Processing