2024 MEI Young Person's Award to Arjun Pukkella

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Arjun Pukkella is the recipient of the 2024 MEI Young Person's Award. Arjun, who will be 35 years old in August, was nominated by Prof. Jan Cilliers, of Imperial College, UK and his PhD supervisor at Imperial College, Dr. Kathryn Hadler, who is now Director of the European Space Resources Innovation Centre in Luxembourg and a former editor of International Journal of Mineral Processing. The nominations were supported by Dr. Sivakumar Subramanian, Principal Scientist, Tata Consultancy Services, India.

Arjun graduated with distinction in 2013 from the Andhra University College of Engineering, India with a BTech in Chemical Engineering, after which he carried out research on CFD modelling of algal bio‑reactors at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, for an ME in Chemical Engineering.

He was then employed as a researcher at the Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Pune, from 2015-2021, in the process intensification area by using CFD modelling for enhanced gravity classifiers, mixing tanks and hydrocyclones, being Star Performer of the Year, Physical Sciences Research area in 2018. During this time, he published seven papers and was named on several patents.

Arjun Pukkella recently completed his PhD after four years at Imperial College London. He started out during Covid, and had to spend the first period at home in India, where he prepared an excellent review of dry separation processes, now published in Minerals Engineering.  He demonstrated a novel way of comparing equipment by plotting their cutsize against capacity, so illustrating areas of applicability. This easily identified research gaps.

His PhD project at Imperial College focused on particle size classification using cyclones, both gas and hydrocyclones, continuing to develop his expertise in this field. From his early PhD work, he published a review paper on technology for size classification with a focus on dry size classification, containing a novel graphical analysis of technology selection. He then undertook research on cyclone shape and classification performance, with an aim to increase cut size and reduce bypass. This was carried out using a combination of CFD simulation and experimental research. 

In a major breakthrough, to understand the reason for his simulations not matching experimental results, Arjun found that a critical factor was cyclone surface roughness. This was shown first in simulations, and then used to explain the changing performance in industrial hydrocyclones over time. Overall his PhD resulted in four papers, with a fifth being under review. This is impressive for any PhD.

In addition to the simulation and laboratory work, Arjun worked with Metso and Anglo American during his PhD on an industrial project. By combining CFD simulation and 3D printing, he developed and tested experimentally a hydrocyclone design that significantly reduced bypass, with an increase in cutsize. This increases capacity in closed circuit milling, and reduces overgrinding. So exciting were these findings that a new hydrocyclone based on his work was developed and is being marketed by Metso as the MHC Curved Bottom Hydrocyclone. A paper on this was presented at the recent Comminution '25 conference, co-authored by Metso, Anglo American, and Arjun and Jan Cilliers. 

Metso has now employed Arjun, who takes up a position as Senior Computational Fluid Dynamics Engineer at the Espoo headquarters in Finland in mid-April.

Arjun is dedicated to advancing mineral processing using numerical and experimental approaches, in addition to designing  novel physical separation equipment. He has made a positive impact on the industry and is a very worthy recipient of the award.