Prof. Rajnish Kumar's Talk

Start
Mar 30, 2022 - 14:30
End
Mar 30, 2022 - 15:30
Venue
Room # 118, Chem. Engg. Dept.(Hybrid)
Event Type
Speaker
Prof. Rajnish Kumar, the Department Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras.
Title
Gas hydrates could play a role in making conventional energy sustainable through CCS

Abstract: Hydrate are ice like crystalline solids which could form even at ambient conditions. While hydrates commonly forms in oil and gas pipelines leading to pipeline blockages, and are considered nuisance, these hydrates have however become popular as an alternative energy resource. Natural gas hydrates found under the sea-bed stores huge amount of methane. As per a recent estimate, total amount of carbon in methane hydrates, far exceeds the carbon content in all the fossil fuel reserves put together. These methane hydrates which exist several meters below the sea-bed have existed for millions of years due to the prevalent temperature and pressure conditions which makes them thermodynamically stable and keeps the gaseous methane locked as solid hydrates. One may learn from nature, and predict that anthropogenic CO2 could be similarly sequestered several meters below the sea-bed as hydrates to give almost infinite storage capacity. This presentation would aim for a comprehensive understanding of these hydrates at molecular level, and its potential use in achieving net zero carbon dioxide emission. Carbon which is mined from earth to satisfy our energy need could only be sustainably used if we find a way to capture and sequester the CO2 deep inside earth. We present a scientific evidence to support CO2 sequestration as solid hydrates deep inside oceanic sediments, for geological timescale.

About the Speaker:
Rajnish Kumar is a professor in the Department Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras. His research interests are unconventional energy, carbon dioxide capture, process development and scale-up. Rajnish is a recipient of NASI – Scopus Young Scientist Award in Chemistry for the year 2016. Has been recognized as Highly Cited Researcher in 2018, and was awarded Dr. YBG Verma Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering Teaching in 2020.