Refinery Operational Excellence

Ashwani Malhotra

Ashwani Malhotra is the Project Director at the Centre of Excellence for Process Safety & Risk Management (CoE-PS&RM), IIT Delhi. The primary focus of the Centre is on developing expertise and knowledge in process safety, building awareness, and providing consultancy services to the industry. Prior to joining CoE-PS&RM at IIT Delhi, he served as Chief General Manager in the Process Department at Engineers India Limited (EIL), with additional charge as Executive Director of the Safety and Environment Departments. He brings over 38 years of experience in process design and engineering for refineries and onshore/offshore oil & gas facilities. His career at EIL also included roles in the Equipment and R&D divisions. He has led the process design of numerous Crude and Vacuum Distillation Units, along with other refinery units—covering both grassroots developments and revamp projects. He has also been involved in the development of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications for Crude and Vacuum Distillation Units to enhance efficiency and support decarbonization efforts. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, where he also completed his bachelor’s degree in the same field.

Anil K. Saroha

Anil K. Saroha has been engaged in “Teaching & Research” in the Chemical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, for the last 25 years. He has been actively working on “Wastewater Treatment” using novel approaches and has completed several transformational research projects on industry-relevant problems. He has guided 13 Ph.D. students and 45 M.Tech. students. He is currently Coordinator (Professor in-charge) of the Centre of Excellence on ‘Process Safety and Risk Management’ operating at IIT Delhi. He is a reviewer for many leading scientific journals. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, Indian Chemical Society, and Institution of Engineers (India). He was the Honorary Editor of ‘Indian Chemical Engineer’, the flagship journal of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE), for 07 years. He has been actively involved with professional societies and has held many responsibilities in IIChE, which is a national body of professional chemical engineers with 32,000 members across the country. He was the Honorary Treasurer, Joint Secretary, Secretary, Vice-Chairman, and Chairman of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (Northern Regional Centre). He was President of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers for the year 2023.