IIT-M recreates Space Fuel

The researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) have recreated space fuel by simulating interstellar conditions in the laboratory.

• It is a big breakthrough for India in the exploration of cleaner and sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel.
• The discovery has the potential to convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into a next-generation energy source to curb greenhouse gases and global warming.
• The research of the IIT-M in this regard has been published in the journal proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Details:

• The team from IIT-M was able to create methane-containing clathrate hydrates in ultra-high vacuum (1000 billion times below the atmospheric pressure) and at a temperature close to -263 degrees Celcius. i.e. the conditions at deep space.
• This discovery of hydrates at extremely low pressures and ultra-cold temperatures is highly unexpected.
• The team predicts that molecules like methane and ammonia in space could exist in a completely different form than what is known to us.

Tackling Climate Change:

• Clathrate hydrates are crystalline solids containing gases like methane and carbon dioxide trapped in well-defined cages of water molecules.
• These hydrates, especially of methane, are considered to be the fuel of the future.
• The researchers then repeated the experiments with carbon-di-oxide and similar hydrates were produced.
• This can be a breakthrough in dealing with global warming.
• Now carbon dioxide can be trapped from the atmosphere and carbon dioxide gas can be sequestered as solid hydrates under the sea bed.

Question:

Q. The researchers from which institute have recreated space fuel by simulating interstellar conditions in the laboratory?
a. Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi
b. Indian Institute of Technology-Kolkata
c. Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay
d. Indian Institute of Technology-Madras