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).