Specialisation:

Prof Ranjith's primary objective throughout his career has been to develop ground-breaking technological solutions to increase sustainability of resources (energy and mineral), and convert waste to wealth in order to achieve net-zero emissions and fulfill UN Sustainable Development Goals 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), and 13 (Climate Action). A major focus of his research is the development of unconventional energy sources – fuels and energy sources (such as renewable geothermal energy and hydrogen) – that provide the opportunity for a transition to a non-fossil energy economy, and which include truly renewable fuel sources, such as geothermal energy. The full details can be found at www.3gdeep.com.

Major Professional Contributions:

Prof Ranjith leads the Geomechanics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources group, a collective of engineers, geoscientists, mathematicians, and chemists, based at Monash University and supported by over $24M  so far in ARC, industry, and overseas grants. He has an international reputation for scientific advances toward climate-change mitigation, converting waste to wealth, and innovative mineral and energy extraction. He has more than five hundred scientific and technical publications in the most reputable periodicals and conference proceedings, as well as senior editorial roles. His abiding career concern has been to enhance sustainability in the energy and resources sector, in line with UN COP26 (2021), and UN Sustain­able Development Goals such as 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), and 13 (Climate Action).

Consultancy Areas:

Deep mining

New energy and resources extraction methods

Waste to wealth: development of new sustainable and economical products from wastes

Renewable energy from deep earth-geothermal energy

Well bore stability and sand production 

Shale gas extraction and fracking

Sector Associated With:

Prof Ranjith’s group has been pioneering to advance atmospheric CO₂ mitigation, through direct storage in geological form­ations and use of CO₂ in a range of innovative products. His knowledge and expertise can bring significant value, contributing to worlds  economy and its ambition to achieve net zero emissions.

Prof Ranjith is editor/Editor-in-Chief/editorial board member of number of prestigious journal  as given below

Editor-in-Chief (and Founding Editor), G4 – Geomechanics and Geophysics for GeoEnergy and GeoResources (IF:4.85), Springer; a journal for scientific discoveries relating to fossil fuel, geothermal energy, and minerals

•  Associate Editor, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Elsevier

•  Editorial Board Member, Engineering Geology, Elsevier

•  Editorial Board Member, International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Science, Elsevier

•  Editorial Board Member, Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, Springer

Sectors Interested to Offer Service:

Policy development on Climate changes

New technologies for Deep mineral and energy recoveries

New energy and resources extraction methods

Waste to wealth: development of new sustainable and economical products from wastes

Renewable energy from deep earth-geothermal energy

Professional Experience

Prof Ranjith’s multidisciplinary research group has developed a completely new approach to the future of mineral, energy and resource recovery, offering several ground-breaking solutions. These cutting-edge technologies, once fully developed, promise to transform core aspects of conventional minerals, reducing the huge energy expenditure in rock crushing (around 10% of energy consumed globally is for crushing rocks to liberate minerals).

His invention of a “Demolition agent” is a breakthrough methodology to break rocks, for which a patent was granted in 2020 (US:10 836 955B2). The principle is to stimulate breakage by controlled release of energy to the rock mass, using injection via a borehole to a target location. The technology has number of other applications including tunnelling, rock caverns and other civil engineering applications.

Keywords

Climate mitigation, Renewable Energy, Hydrogen storage, Waste to wealth, Green cement, sequestration, fracking