Zeban Shah

Currently I am working at National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester on a project is “Bio-Pitch as a Sustainable Replacement of Coal Tar Pitch in Graphite Electrodes.

I earned my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in 2008 and my fascination and wonders led me to decide to pursue chemistry further, and in 2010. After receiving my master's degree, I began working as a lecturer but after three years I made the decision to finish my PhD. In 2017, I finished my PhD in chemistry at Brazil's Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. My doctoral research was focused on "Preparing Jet Engine and Diesel Engine Range Fuels from Biomass Pyrolysis Oil through Hydrogenation Using NiMo as a Catalyst". After receiving my PhD from the University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, I completed a three-year postdoctoral research fellowship on preparing, characterization, and applications of activated and magnetic carbons from waste biomass.

Currently I am working at National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester on a project is “Bio-Pitch as a Sustainable Replacement of Coal Tar Pitch in Graphite Electrodes. 

• Duties:   Research as a Postdoc Research Associate in the Materials Science department (National Graphene Institute) on Preparation and Characterization of Graphite electrodes from sustainable Bio-Pitch Using different Biomass precursors to obtain bio-oil and distillation of bio-oil to produce bio-pitch. The aim of the bio-pitch produced from bio-oil was to replace Coal tar Pitch using Carbon electrodes (widely used as a carbonisable/ graphitizable binder to form carbon electrodes (e.g. for aluminium smelting), seals, speciality graphites for electric brushes and current collectors (e.g. wind turbine generators & rail pantograph systems), and molten metal- conveying components for the ferrous and non-ferrous metal industries.).
• Preparation and conversion of Agricultural biomass (sawdust) to bio-oil through slow and fast pyrolysis (500 - 1000 0C). 
• Distillation of bio-oil at different temperatures (150 - 250 0C) to produce Bio-pitch. 
• Mixing different percentages of Bio-pitch and Graphite particles, after mixing converting the mixture to a powder form, using the hot and cold press to make different shapes of electrodes.
• The produced samples of these electrodes were carbonised at 850 - 1500 oC and then graphitized at 2200 – 2500 oC.
• Testing the produced electrodes for different types of electrical and mechanical properties like Electrical conductivity tests, tensile strength, hardness tests, bending tests, rupture strength, 
• Also different surface Characterizations of the electrodes like SEM, XRD, RAMON and other analyses like TGA, FT-IR, Optical Microscope,
•  GC-MS of bio-pitch and Bio-Oil.
• Comparison of Coaltar pitch electrodes and bio-pitch electrodes after the above characterization and analysis.
• Writing and presenting the results every week in the group and twice a month to the MORGAN ADVANCE MATERIALS.