IIT Madras Team Produces Gas Hydrates

• 08 Jan 2019

A team of Indian researchers at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras has synthesized in a lab tiny water cages containing trace amounts of methane and carbon dioxide at extremely low temperatures and pressure to simulate the conditions of deep space.

• These tiny cages are known as Clathrate Hydrates or Gas Hydrates.
• Normally, the formation of clathrate hydrates requires high pressures and moderate temperature.
• This discovery of hydrates is unexpected at extremely low pressures and ultracold temperatures as cages of water are not expected to form under such conditions.
• At low temperature, both ice and methane are in a frozen state, prolonging the experiment at a very low temperature enhanced the mobility of methane molecules and led to their insertion into the cage of water molecules to form methane hydrate.

Clathrate Hydrates

• Clathrate hydrates are solid cages of water containing small non-polar molecules like carbon dioxide and methane.
• Clathrate hydrates are formed when a gas such as methane gets trapped in well-defined cages of water molecules forming crystalline solids. In terrestrial conditions, gas hydrates are formed naturally under the seabed and glaciers under high pressure, low-temperature conditions.
• On earth, they are found on the ocean floor or the permafrost region of the earth.

Uses of Clathrate Hydrates

• Hydrates are considered as the future sources of fuel. Many countries, including India, have started projects to explore hydrates present on the ocean bed.
• They could be a potentially safe, efficient method for storing and transporting gases.

Significance

• Carbon Sequestration
  • Trapping carbon dioxide in hydrates can be a way to reduce to global warming in future. As one can sequester carbon dioxide gas as solid hydrates under the seabed.
    Sustainable Energy source
• Development of technology to harvest Gas Hydrates can ensure energy security of the nation.

Gas hydrate exploration in India

• Under the aegis of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, a comprehensive research-oriented gas hydrates program was launched during the 11th plan (2007-12) period emphasizing scientific and technology development with following major objectives:
  • Understanding the nature of distribution of gas hydrates in marine sediments
  • Developing techniques for detection and quantification of gas hydrates
  • Identifying promising sites on the regional scale and estimating the resource potential
  • Recommending suitable sites for drilling and ground truth validation
  • Demonstrating occurrences of gas hydrates 
  • Understanding the mechanism for the formation and accumulation of gas hydrates
  • Studying the impact of hydrate dissociation on climate and geological environment
  • Developing environment-safe technology for commercial production on a pilot scale
  • Developing hazardless and cost-effective transportation of gas from gas hydrates and
  • Monitoring environmental perturbation during harvesting of gas hydrates
• National Centre For Polar And Ocean Research (NCAOR), Ministry of Earth Sciences has been identified as the nodal agency responsible for implementation of the scientific aspects of the study.
• National Gas Hydrate Programmes (NGHP)
  • The programme was initiated in 1997 with a Steering Committee and a Technical Committee.
  • National Gas Hydrate Programme (NGHP) is steered by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and technically coordinated by Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).