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.