Research Innovation Industrial Impact
Sandip Kumar
Lahiri
Chemical Engineer · Academic · Global Petrochemical Leader
Connecting more than 25 years of international plant experience with rigorous research in artificial intelligence, process optimization and advanced control.
25+ years global experience94 institutional publications9 sponsored projects
AIPROCESS
INTELLIGENCE
INTELLIGENCE
RESEARCH VECTORAI × Engineering
FOCUS AREASDigital twinsAPC & optimizationFault diagnosis
GLOBAL FOOTPRINTIndia · Saudi Arabia · USA
Plant operations to research leadership
01 · Profile
Industry depth.
Academic rigour.
Dr. Sandip Kumar Lahiri is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the National Institute of Technology Durgapur and a globally experienced petrochemical professional.
His career brings together production, technical services, advanced process control, industrial troubleshooting and technology development. He has worked across leading petrochemical organizations in India, Saudi Arabia and the United States, converting complex plant problems into measurable improvements in reliability, energy, quality and profitability.
02 · Professional experience
Across plants,
continents & classrooms.
More than 25 years spanning large-scale petrochemical production, technical services, process control, consulting and academic leadership.
2019 — Present
Associate Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering, NIT DurgapurTeaching, research leadership, industrial consultancy and the translation of AI-driven process systems into plant practice.
Global advisory
Independent Consultant
Nextgenaro · Petrochemical & process industriesTechnology advisory spanning process optimization, energy performance, soft sensors, fault diagnosis and advanced process control.
5 years
Manager, Technical Services
Scientific Design Company, New Jersey, USATechnical services for ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol technologies, performance improvement and industrial troubleshooting.
5 years
Senior Production Engineer
Jubail United Petrochemical Company, Saudi ArabiaOperations and technical services for a major petrochemical complex, including APC, optimization and production performance.
9 years
Manager
Indian Petrochemicals Corporation / Reliance IndustriesProduction, process engineering and technical services in large-scale petrochemical operations.
3 years
Process Controller
Durgapur Projects Limited, IndiaEarly-career foundation in plant operations, control and process performance.
Process EngineeringAdvanced Process ControlAI & Machine LearningHAZOPEnergy OptimizationSoft SensorsFault DiagnosisDigital TwinsPlant TroubleshootingTechnical Strategy
CURRENT CONSULTANCY
Turning plant data into operating advantage.
Independent consultancy and collaborative industrial research focused on commercially meaningful process intelligence—from reactor optimization and performance dashboards to soft sensors and root-cause diagnosis.
View the current consultancy update on LinkedIn ↗01
Ethylene glycol reactor optimization module
02
Energy and cost-based performance dashboards for an ethylene glycol plant
03
Soft sensor for drying-column overhead performance
04
Argon-purge optimization module
05
Root-cause analysis of air-turbine failure in a fertilizer plant
06
Ethylene oxide reactor modelling and optimization
03 · Research & innovation
Research built for
the real world.
Work at the intersection of chemical engineering, data-driven modelling and sustainable industrial performance.
Artificial intelligence in process industries
Explainable machine learning, multigene genetic programming and hybrid AI frameworks for prediction, diagnosis and decision support.
Process optimization
Metaheuristics and multi-objective methods balancing profit, energy use, quality and environmental impact.
Advanced process control
Plant-ready APC, soft sensors, performance dashboards and real-time fault-diagnosis systems.
Sustainable engineering
Energy-efficient steelmaking, wastewater treatment, bioremediation, CO₂ sequestration and cleaner process technologies.
Thermal & multiphase systems
Heat-exchanger design, cryogenic boiling, CFD and two-phase flow modelling.
Selected industrial research
Institutional profile ↗“Third Eye” online equipment fault diagnosis · EO reactor ANN–DE optimization · MEG quality PLS–GA model · Paraxylene APC lifecycle · DRI–EAF explainable ML optimization
04 · Selected publications
Recent research
highlights.
2025
Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy
↗2025A Hybrid Explainable Machine Learning and Optimization Framework for Energy Reduction in DRI-Based Electric Arc Furnace Steelmaking
The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering
↗2025Transforming chemical process engineering: The role of AI and machine learning in revolutionizing process systems
The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering
↗2025Digital twins: Transforming the chemical process industry—A review
Journal of the Indian Chemical Society
↗2024Advancing Fault Diagnosis for Ethyl Benzene Production Plant: A Machine Learning and Explainable AI Approach
Ironmaking & Steelmaking
↗2024Enhancing steelmaking productivity: a hybrid approach of machine learning and genetic algorithm optimisation for electric arc furnace
The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering
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