IIT Madras Develops New Techniques To Extract Methane

On June 18, the Indian Institue of Technology Madras or IITM announced that its researchers have successfully developed new techniques to extract methane from gas hydrates in nature. The research’s results have been posted in many prominent international journals like Applied Energy and Energy & Fuels.

The whole world has put lots of interests in developing techniques for methane extraction. This kind of methane gas is stuck in ‘gas hydrates’ that are found in shallow sediments at continental coastlines.

According to researchers from the IITM,

The amount of methane is about 1,500 times as much as the existing gas reserves in India. The reports from the Ministry of Earth Sciences point out that there is a huge amount of gas hydrates in both Andaman and Krishna-Godavari basins.

With the new techniques, the IITM hopes to provide natural gas, as well as ease the import burden of natural gas in India. Jitendra Sangwai, a Professor at the Department of Ocean Engineering, IITM, will be the one to head the research. He is now studying modern processes to collect crude oil at offshore reservoirs in the nation. The research group includes two other members: Vishnu C and Pawan Gupta. In addition to the IITM, Department of Science and Technology, also known as DST, also funds the research.

According to Mr. Sangwai,

The IIT Madras hopes that these new techniques will contribute to solving the fossil fuel issue in India.