Faculty

Ramya Srinivasan received her PhD in Environmental Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in 2021. Her research expertise is in advanced treatment strategies for wastewater treatment, specifically for the removal of emerging and persistent organic contaminants. She has explored combinations of biological and electrochemical methods for uncovering novel mechanisms and reaction pathways for sustainable and improved efficiency of treatment. Ramya was a recipient of the Institute Research Award at IIT Madras, conferred for exemplary research. She has also received the Research Scholar Innovative Project funding during her PhD. She has worked with a start-up on waste water treatment in Boston, associated with MIT.

Ramya investigated the abatement of conventional and emerging persistent organic contaminants by an electrochemical advanced oxidation process, namely, electro-peroxone. A novel 3D-Graphene-coated Nickel Foam (Gr-NF) electrode was used to achieve a comprehensive treatment of pharmaceutical compounds and mechanisms behind enhanced reactive oxygen species generation were elucidated. She also designed the first-ever electrically bound biofilm reactor (EBBR) for enhancing biofilm formation. She has studied enhancement of biofilm growth and its application for removing emerging contaminants in water by bio-electrochemical methods. She has also researched treatment of textile dyes and textile wastewater treatment using Fenton and electro-peroxone systems. In another research, she explored hybrid electrochemical advanced oxidation for wastewater treatment in which a novel hybrid bi-functional rotating dual drum electrode system capable of simultaneous photo-electrocatalysis and electro-Fenton processes was developed. An electro-catalyst (Graphene-ferrocene) and photo-catalyst (MoS2 − TiO2) were synthesised for the efficient removal of persistent organic pollutants. This system achieved a complete and rapid removal of ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic drug within a reaction time of 30 minutes.

Research Publications

• R. Srinivasan and I.M. Nambi, "An Electro-Peroxone-based Multi-Pronged Strategy for the Treatment of Emerging Pharmaceutical Wastewater using a novel Graphene-coated Nickel Foam Electrode", Chemical Engineering Journal, 450, 2022.
• R. Srinivasan, I. M. Nambi and J. Senthilnathan, “Liquid crystal display electrode assisted bio-reactor for highly stable and enhanced biofilm attachment for wastewater treatment–A sustainable approach for e-waste management”, Chemical Engineering Journal, 358, 2019.
• R. Srinivasan and I. M. Nambi, "Liquid crystal display electrode-assisted bio-electroperoxone treatment train for the abatement of organic contaminants in a pharmaceutical wastewater", Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2020.
• R. Srinivasan, B. Rajasekhar and I. M. Nambi, "Deterministic and Probabilistic Health Risk Assessment for Exposure to Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs in an Indian River", Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2021, 1-14.
• D. Govindaraj, R. Srinivasan and I. M. Nambi, “Highly active and stable ferrocene functionalized graphene encapsulated carbon felt array-A novel rotating disc electrode for electro-Fenton oxidation of pharmaceutical compounds”, Electrochimica Acta, 283, 2018.
• S. Krishnasamy, V. J. Vignesh, R. Srinivasan (equal contribution), G. Divyapriya, and I. M. Nambi, "Antibiotic usage, residues and resistance genes from food animals to human and environment: An Indian scenario", Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 2018.
• G. Divyapriya, R. Srinivasan, J. Mohanalakshmi and I. M. Nambi, "Bifunctional rotating drum electrodes for the oxidation of ciprofloxacin: an integrated system of photoelectrocatalysis and photo-electro-Fenton processes", Journal of water process engineering, 49, 2022.
• R. Srinivasan and I.M. Nambi, "Influence of physico-chemical growth conditions on the performance of a moving bed biofilm reactor: effect of salinity, temperature and aeration rate on biofilm attachment and wastewater treatment", International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology.

Book Chapters

• S. Rathinavelu, K.E. Velmaiel, G. Divyapriya, R. Srinivasan and I. M. Nambi, "Occurrence, sources, and fate of antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria and their resistant genes in groundwater and subsurface environment" in ’Legacy, Pathogenic and Emerging Contaminants in the Environment’. Taylor and Francis.
• G. Divyapriya*, S. Rathinavelu*, R. Srinivasan* and I. M. Nambi, "Advanced treatment technologies to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes from urban wastewater" in ’Emerging contaminants in water and wastewater: monitoring, risk assessment and remediation techniques’. Springer Nature. (*equal contribution)

• Recipient, Institute Research Award, IIT Madras - 2020: A prestigious institute-level research award conferred for recognising exemplary research contribution.
• Recipient, Research Scholar Innovative Project (RSIP) award - 2016-2017: Awarded for research on ’Enhanced electrochemical advanced oxidation of antibiotics on novel bifunctional rotating dual drum electrode system’ - sponsored by Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (IC&SR), IIT Madras.
• Recipient, Nirmaan Start-up Funding 2021: Seed funding offered to select students at the institute level for prototyping their start-up ideas.
• Start-up Series 2020: Selected as part of the Start-up Series 2020 programme organised at the institute level by IIT Madras for furthering innovative ideas.

Professor Srinivasan will teach courses related to wastewater treatment, environmental engineering, and biotechnology.