Adjunct Professor - Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering
Professor Mridul Gautam is an internationally recognized expert in the area of heavy-duty mobile source exhaust emissions, and aerosol sampling, particulate matter measurement, characterization, and control. He has been instrumental in the development and operation of the National Research Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions program at WVU, and currently serves as its Co-Director. He is also serving as the Director of the National Center for Mining Engines and Safety. Professor Gautam has worked in the areas of on-highway engines (heavy-duty vehicles fueled by conventional and alternative fuels) and off-road engines (construction, stationary, portable, and mining applications) for nearly 14 years. Gautam was responsible for initiating the Heavy-Duty Engine, Fuels and Emissions program at West Virginia University in 1988. Gautam has served as the Principal Investigator or the Co-Principal Investigator of several research programs with a total funding level in excess of $40 million. He has authored/co-authored over 200 technical articles.
Currently, Gautam is leading the Mobile Emissions Measurement System (MEMS), funded by the Settling Heavy-duty Engine manufacturers (Caterpillar, Cummins, Detroit Diesel, International, Mack, and Volvo). The study involves determination of in-use, on-board emissions from heavy-duty diesel vehicles in accordance with the requirements of Consent Decrees that were entered into in 1998. In addition to several other major studies, Gautam is a principal investigator on a CRC-funded study investigating heavy-duty vehicle exhaust emissions to improve emissions inventory, air quality modeling, source apportionment and air toxics emissions inventory. He has taken on leading roles in several off-road heavy-duty emissions studies funded by the California Air Resource Board, South Coast Air Quality Management District, State of West Virginia, U.S. Department of Energy, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and private industry. He was responsible for the design, development and operation of the emissions measurement systems in both the FTP test cell and the WVU Transportable Heavy-Duty Vehicle Emissions Testing Laboratories. He is also evaluating strategies for reduction of particulate matter in the close confines of coal mines using after treatment devices (traps, catalyzed traps, catalytic converters, passive regeneration systems). He has directed projects involving in-cylinder combustion research; nano particle emissions from heavy-duty vehicles; use of ultra-low sulfur fuels with catalyzed traps in heavy-duty vehicles; transient and steady state testing of heavy-duty engines and vehicles; reduction of particulate matter and gaseous emissions from underground mining engines; exhaust emissions from diesel and alternative fuel heavy-duty vehicles; speciation of heavy-duty exhaust and development of microwave assisted trap oxidizer systems; and genotoxicity studies on conventional and alternative fueled vehicle exhaust emissions.
Education
Ph.D., West Virginia University, 1989
M.S., Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, 1984
B.S., G.B. Pant University of Agric. & Technology, 1982