Dr. Chandra Shekhar Sharma, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering and Creative & Advanced Research Based On Nanomaterials (CARBON) Laboratory, IITH, has been awarded the prestigious Swarnajayanti Fellowship 2019-2020 for his proposed work on Metals CO2 battery. Dr. Sharma will receive due support from DST and SERB to further develop this concept which can play a pivotal role in India’s 2024 Mars Mission and fixing the CO2 emissions that cause global warming.
His work has two major aspects. First, an appropriate energy storage system especially suitable for the extreme environment which has always been a challenge for all space agencies. Since Mars atmosphere primarily consists of CO2, the broad objective of this concept is to scientifically explore and develop a working prototype of Metal (M)-CO2 battery technology to explore the feasibility of this technology in the Mars mission particularly for the surface landers and rovers by using the CO2 gas (95.32%) abundantly available in its atmosphere. Development of Metal-CO2 batteries will provide high specific energy density with the reduction in mass and volume which will help the reduction of payload mass and launch cost in planetary missions.
A real battery prototype will be developed as an outcome of this fellowship and ISRO and DRDO will be brought on board in the early phase of the project for timely inputs.
ADVERTISEMENT
The second important aspect of this proposal is to develop Metal-CO2 battery technology also as a clean strategy for restraining the climate effects of CO2 emissions on earth.