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CASE STUDY · YRI FELLOW
Ishaan Menon
Ishaan MenonCHEMISTRY & SUSTAINABILITY

Turned waste tires into cleaner fuel, published at an IEEE conference

Billions of discarded tires pile up because they barely degrade and are hazardous to burn. Ishaan studied pyrolysis, which breaks tires down into fuel, gas and carbon, and designed a hybrid catalytic system pairing a bimetal-modified zeolite with catalysts made from industrial waste. He analyzed reaction kinetics, activation energies and product distributions, built predictive models to optimize yields of aromatic hydrocarbons and low-sulfur fuels, and assessed catalyst regeneration and techno-economic feasibility. The work was published at an IEEE conference.

FIELDChemistry & Sustainability
RESULTFirst-author IEEE publication
VENUEIEEE, 2025
Ishaan Menon, YRI FellowIEEE
BEFORE THE FELLOWSHIP

A first-time researcher with an interest in chemistry and sustainability, and no plan for how to turn it into research.

AFTER

First-author IEEE publication on catalytic pyrolysis of waste tires, and a state science fair finalist.

“I went from no plan to a week-by-week roadmap. We scoped a real study, drafted my first manuscript, and got published in IEEE.”
ISHAAN MENON
THE LEDGER
01First-author paper published at an IEEE conference, indexed on IEEE Xplore
02State science fair finalist
03Designed a hybrid catalyst from bimetal-modified zeolite and industrial waste
04Built predictive models to optimize fuel yield and reduce sulfur content
05Assessed catalyst regeneration and techno-economic feasibility at scale
THE PAPERHybrid Catalytic Pyrolysis of Waste Tires Using Bimetal-Modified Zeolite and Industrial Waste-Derived Catalysts: Experimental Kinetic Analysis and Predictive ModelingVERIFY
NEXT CASE STUDYArfa Haseeb, First-author paper accepted at an IEEE conference

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