Somanath Kukade is a Chief Manager-FCC at HP Green R&D Centre, Bengaluru, India.  He has 20 years of research experience and holds Bachelor’s degree from the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka and Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, both in chemical engineering. He has 28 granted patents in area of FCC process & catalyst/additives. His areas of management include Gas-Solid Fluidization, Cold flow hydrodynamics, CFD, FCC Process Simulation, FCC Catalyst Evaluation/Pilot Plant Studies, FCC Process Design & Process Development, Technical services/troubleshooting for FCC units and Scale-up of catalyst & additives.