UTC’s Rahul R. Bhosale becomes first chemical engineering professor from Tennessee to receive early-career NSF ERI award

Guerry Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Rahul R. Bhosale

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Guerry Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Rahul R. Bhosale has become the first chemical engineering professor from both the state of Tennessee and UTC to be awarded the highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) Award.

Bhosale, who joined the UTC Department of Civil and Chemical Engineering in spring 2023, has been awarded a $199,734 grant to support his research into renewable energy systems. His project, titled “High-Temperature Thermochemical Energy Storage Using Doped Calcium Manganites,” is set to run until July 2027.

Bhosale is the eighth faculty member from a Tennessee university and the fourth from UTC to receive the prestigious award. The ERI program was created in 2021.

Administered by NSF’s Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET), the ERI program is designed to support early-career engineering faculty as they establish research independence and build competitive research programs. ERI grants are among the most competitive early-stage federal research awards available to new faculty, and only 55 are granted yearly.

Bhosale’s award is funded through NSF ERI grant CBET#2501431.

“We are thrilled by Dr. Bhosale’s award from the NSF Engineering Research Initiation program,” UTC Chancellor for Research Reinhold Mann said. “It is an indication of the level of confidence in Dr. Bhosale’s ability to innovate in the important area of thermochemical energy storage.”

Bhosale’s project focuses on advancing high-temperature thermochemical energy storage (TCES), a promising method for storing solar or industrial heat to power energy systems even when the sun isn’t shining. While today’s concentrated solar power (CSP) plants often use molten salt-based heat storage, those systems have temperature limitations that hinder overall efficiency. TCES offers a higher energy density and can operate at much higher temperatures, making it a more efficient and sustainable solution.

The research explores the development of doped calcium manganite (DCM) materials—engineered ceramic compounds designed to store and release thermal energy through reversible chemical reactions. By enhancing the material’s ability to withstand repeated heating and cooling cycles at extreme temperatures, the project aims to improve performance and cost-effectiveness for CSP applications.

“Solar energy has always been my primary focus in research, a field I’ve dedicated a significant amount of time to,” Bhosale explained. “Interestingly, while my previous work revolved around using solar energy for fuel production, such as hydrogen or syngas, I had never ventured into solar energy storage. This new direction not only ties into my ongoing research but also opens up exciting possibilities.

“This project will prove to be advantageous as it aims to enhance the energy storage sector, particularly in the realm of CSP technology. By doing so, we can optimize the solar energy storage and generate electricity from sunlight more effectively.”

In addition to advancing energy storage technologies, the project offers experiential research opportunities for UTC students. The NSF-supported team includes funding for one Ph.D. student and multiple undergraduate researchers, providing hands-on involvement in Density Functional Theory quantum chemical computations, material synthesis and characterization, high-temperature thermochemical redox reactions, and computational thermodynamic analysis. Students working on the project will get valuable experience sharpening their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills as they prepare for careers in science and engineering.

“As part of our educational initiative, we are not only aiming to engage undergraduates, but I also intend to involve high school teachers during the summer,” Bhosale said. “The teachers will receive training in TCES, which they can then share with their students. This approach will inspire high school students to consider pursuing chemical engineering or a career in engineering as a whole.”

Bhosale’s research focuses on designing and developing technologies to address the pressing global challenges related to energy, the environment and materials. He has made significant contributions to the field, with over 220 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings to his name. His work has been cited approximately 6,800 times, reflecting its impact, and he has an h-index of 51 and an i10-index of 122. More than 50 of these published articles have featured undergraduate students as co-authors, highlighting a dedication to mentoring and collaborating with the next generation of researchers.

Bhosale has received numerous prestigious research honors, including the Guerry Professorship from UTC in 2024. Since 2020, Stanford University has named him among the world’s top 2% of scientists for five consecutive years—a distinction based on citation impact and research productivity across all scientific fields. Since 2022, he has been recognized by ScholarGPS—a leading scholarly analytics platform tracking more than 30 million researchers from over 120,000 institutions worldwide—as a Highly Ranked Scholar in hydrogen energy (world No. 7). ScholarGPS has also ranked him among the top scholars in chemical engineering, energy, water splitting, thermodynamics, ferrites and related disciplines.

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Here are UTC’s NSF ERI grant recipients:

Dr. Yunye Shi, mechanical engineering (2023)—ERI: Characterizing and improving algae-derived biofuel droplet burning
Dr. Reetesh Ranjan, mechanical engineering (2023)—ERI: Computational Investigation of High-Pressure Turbulent Premixed Flames – Physical Insights and Two-Scale Predictive Modeling
Dr. Murat Barisik, mechanical engineering (2024)—ERI: Molecular-level Characterization of Water-in-Salt Electric Double-Layer Capacitors: Nanoscale Thermal Effects on Differential Capacitance
Dr. Rahul Bhosale, chemical engineering (2025)—ERI: High-Temperature Thermochemical Energy Storage Using Doped Calcium Manganites