Dr. Sachin Nimbalkar serves as the group leader for the Manufacturing Energy Efficiency Research & Analysis (MEERA) Group in the Manufacturing Science Division (MSD) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He has more than 16 years of professional experience which includes working as a Distinguished R&D staff member at ORNL.
Sachin and his group conduct research; analyze and disseminate knowledge on energy, water, and material efficiency in the manufacturing sector; and develop, deploy, and promote impactful practices, tools, and technologies in the field of energy, water, and material efficiency. He also provides technical support to DOE Industrial Technologies Office’s (ITO) Better Plants Challenge partners through energy roadmap development, baselining analyses, in-plant trainings, and field visits to investigate feasible measures to reduce process energy requirements.
Dr. Nimbalkar conducts life-cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis in the areas of advanced manufacturing, energy productivity & production optimization technologies, smart manufacturing, and water-energy nexus. He assists DOE’s international activities through technical program management support and planning and development of tools and materials. As such, he has held several training workshops and webinars throughout Brazil, China, Costa Rica, India, Turkey, and Ukraine, covering energy efficiency in process heat systems and waste heat recovery from industrial process heating equipment and DOE’s Process Heating Assessment and Survey Tool.
Sachin is an active member of Sigma Xi, the Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has achieved the “Qualified Specialist” recognition in using three key DOE energy-efficiency software tools—the Process Heating Assessment and Survey Tool, the Pump System Assessment Tool, and the Steam System Assessment Tool. These are comprehensive tools used to evaluate energy-savings improvements in pump, process heating, and steam systems.