As students at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur in eastern India, Aniruddha Sharma and Prateek Bumb had one obsession: finding a cheaper, more efficient way to capture carbon emissions to combat climate change.

They began working on the problem in 2009, while still at university. The eureka moment came after numerous trials and errors that required restarting the process 16 times.

With no help from the Indian government, Sharma and Bumb tapped private investors. They also won prize money of £3.6 million ($4.5 million) in a U.K. competition, giving them access to scientists and academics in the field.