IIT Bombay Assistant professor wins INSA medal in Young Scientist category for CO2 emission research

Vikram Vishal, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at IIT Bombay, has won the prestigious Indian National Science Academy (INSA) medal in the Young Scientist category for 2017. The award carries a bronze medal and a cash prize of Rs 25,000, a release from the IIT Bombay said here today. The award is considered to be the highest recognition for young scientists in the country, it said. Vishal is currently working on research “which attempts to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their environmental impact by capturing the natural gases”, it said. His research “looks at capturing the carbon dioxide released when coal is burnt or created as a by-product in other industries and injecting it back into the rock deep underground so that it is not released into the atmosphere,” the release added. Due to vast geological diversity, India offers ample opportunities for the storage of carbon dioxide, and injection of carbon dioxide will also lead to “enhanced recovery of methane to partly meet our growing energy demands”, Vishal was quoted as saying in the release.