Gear Up For Herbal Petrol

Scientists witnessing his demonstration at the Indian Institute of Technology here said they were baffled. It is incredible but true, said IIT chemist N K Jha who organised the experiment at the request of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

What this discovery means is that, given the herb, you can convert plain tap water into a fuel that can drive your vehicle. In fact 30-year old Ramar Pillai who discovered the amazing herb seven years ago has been doing precisely that in his village near Rajapalayam.

Pillai, who was invited to Delhi by DST secretary Valangiman Ramamurti, says his herbal petrol would cost one rupee per litre. All he wants from DST is money to put up a plant in his native place and personal protection. Recently there was an attempt on his life for refusing to part with his secret.

 

I am personally convinced it is a discovery worth pursuing, said Ramamurti after repeating the experiment himself. The product burnt with a sooty flame, smelled like kerosene and on distillation yielded a pure hydrocarbon fraction with a boiling point of 170 degree (c).We have no doubt that we are sitting on something very big, Ramamurti said. But we must proceed carefully and systematically.

He said DST has assigned the highest priority to get Ramar's invention patented. The department has also acceded to his request for funds to erect a 300 litre per day pilot plant at Rajapalayam.

Simultaneously, the best scientists in the country will be invited to understand the chemical process in detail before setting up a plant with a production capacity one million litres herbal fuel per day, Ramamurti said. Defence science adviser A P J Abdul kalam has been briefed.

Ramamurthi said the economic implication of his discovery for the country being so enormous, he has decided to keep science minister Yoginder Alagh and the Office of Prime Minister informed.

As an eighth class student, Ramar realized the value of the plant during a picnic in a forest when a flying spark from the cooking stove set a leaf of a nearby plant on fire.

He almost forgot about this strange event of a green leaf catching fire but 10 years later he tracked down the plant and started experiments on the plant.

To produce petrol, leaves and barks of this plant are cooked for about 10 minutes in water. The mixture is cooled and stirred after adding a little salt, citric acid and a traces of a few unknown chemicals.

Once allowed to settle the liquid fuel, which is lighter than water, floats to the top and is separated by filtering. The entire process takes less than 30 minutes.

According to DST, laboratory tests conducted with earlier samples have conclusively shown that the herbal fuel is a pure hydrocarbon similar to kerosene and diesel.

Engineers at IIT, Madras, who conducted static tests in two- stroke engines concluded that the herbal fuel offered better fuel economy than petrol, and that it will have good potential in a four-stroke petrol as well as diesel engines.

Scientists say that while there is no doubt about generation of liquid fuel, they are unable to explain the source of carbon necessary to make the hydrocarbon.

They are also surprised by the extreme speed of the process. One possible source of carbon, according to Ratna Choudhury of IIT, is atmospheric carbon dioxide that is probably sucked in during the reaction. Combining with hydrogen liberated from water it can form the hydrocarbon fuel. Right now it is only a guess, she said.