Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras researchers are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to study the processes involved in conversion of biomass into gaseous fuel. Studies based on computer simulations and modeling can provide quicker insights as the hands on experiments are time-consuming and expensive, the researchers said.
“With increasing environmental concerns associated with petroleum-derived fuels, biomass is a practical solution, not in the conventional sense of directly burning wood, cow dung cakes, and coal, but as a source of energy-dense fuel. Researchers all over the world are finding methods to extract fuel from biomass such as wood, grass, and even waste organic matter,” IIT Madras said.
The current availability of biomass in India is estimated at about 750 million metric tonnes per year and extracting fuel from them can tremendously help the country attain fuel self-sufficiency, it added.
The research team was led by assistant professor Himanshu Goyal, Department of Chemical Engineering and Niket S Kaisare, professor at the same department.
Recent results of the modeling studies were published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Reaction Chemistry and Engineering. The paper has been co-authored by Prof Goyal, Prof Kaisare and Krishna Gopal Sharma, a fourth Year BTech student at the Department of Computer Science.
“There is an urgent need to train the next generation of engineers on high-performance computing and machine learning skills so that they can address some of the biggest challenges before us, such as developing zero-emission technologies to tackle climate change. This work is one such example,” Dr Goyal said.