Eminent scientist and Bharat Ratna awardee C.N.R. Rao on Monday called for promoting research on artificial photosynthesis in a big way to eventually produce hydrogen-based clean energy.
Talking to reporters here after delivering the key note address at a national conference on Advanced Materials for Defence and Aerospace Applications at the Hyderabad campus of BITS Pilani, he said artificial photosynthesis was a key area and had become a national mission in the United States, he added.
All one needed for research was sunlight. He said it should be taken up on a national scale and the country would benefit from such research as its energy problems would be directly addressed. He himself had been working on it.
Prof. Rao said research continued worldwide on storage of hydrogen, which would be the biggest source of energy if produced through artificial photosynthesis.
Earlier, during his talk, he said modern materials science was the single-most exciting area today, encompassing every field of science and engineering. He called for increasing energy produced through photovoltaic cells several-fold from the present 2,000 MW. He also mentioned the advances made in nano-sciences.
BITS-Pilani Hyderabad vice-chancellor B.N. Jain said research emphasised the importance of collaboration with other universities and academic bodies as it had become more expensive and multi-disciplinary.
Director of the institute V.S. Rao proposed a vote of thanks.
