The Experts Pushing the Envelope: Rishi Agarwal, PhD, Director of Process Development & Engineering

Boston Metal is bringing specialists to the table to overcome challenges and pioneer innovation. Our team is made up of world-class scientists and metals industry veterans with deep technical expertise in metallurgy, electrochemistry, materials science, process engineering, systems modeling, thermodynamics and more. Get to know Rishi Agarwal, an innovator at Boston Metal who specializes in electrochemistry.

Rishi began his career at Boston Metal as an electrochemical scientist working on electrolyte development. He has since taken on the role of technical lead on our pilot scale Molten Oxide Electrolysis (MOE) cells, overseeing the development of the commercial process for our technology.

During his doctoral work in chemistry at Yale University, Rishi became interested in electrochemistry because of its applications in cleantech and its promise as a greener approach to chemistry. To explore further, he pursued postdoctoral research at Stanford University in electrochemical carbon removal. This skillset has been an excellent asset for his work at Boston Metal.  

“We have challenges ahead of us, but it is remarkable to see how far we have come. It changes your perspective on what is possible. I am a lot more open to possibility these days.“

Currently, Rishi is focused on the development and commercialization of our MOE technology for green steel production. He is working to translate complex science into straightforward actions to control our process and scale up our groundbreaking technology to the industrial level. Day to day, he develops and improves the key performance indicators for our pilot and commercial MOE cells. Rishi enjoys taking innovations from the lab and bridging them into real outcomes.

Here’s how Rishi views his work:

What motivates you to continue pushing the envelope in your field?  

In this field, it’s been interesting to patent things or write publications, but now what really interests me is making one of these technologies commercial. For me, that is the drive – how do you make something real in the world that is actually going to have an impact? What we do here doesn’t just live in the lab, it is driving real change.

What do you enjoy most about your current role and the impact you have? 

I enjoy working with a lot of different teams and experts. The work we are doing could never be done in academia; you need lots of different people with different expertise. When I first joined Boston Metal, I don’t know if I really appreciated what was possible when you have a really strong team. We have challenges ahead of us, but it is remarkable to see how far we have come. It changes your perspective on what is possible. I am a lot more open to possibility these days.

If you were to describe the importance of the work you do, what would you say?

Steel is used to build almost everything. In particular, steel is a crucial part of raising developing countries out of poverty. We have to develop a process that is simple and accessible in order to operate on a scale that can make a real impact.

Learn more about the historic commissioning run of our multi-inert anode industrial demonstrator MOE green steel cell, made possible by the hard work of committed team members like Rishi.