Iit For Further Research On Herbal Petrol Urged

The Ramar Pillai find has impressed the scientific community. Getting 300 cc of fuel from a litre of water is very impressive, and justifies any initial investment the government may make in the pilot venture, says professor V Ganesan of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

It may be recalled that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had announced that his government would help Pillai by funding a 300 litre a day refinery to upgrade the process from the lab scale to pilot plant level. This high yield, say scientists, is the most interesting aspect of Pillai's herbal petrol. Earlier experiments with leaves having hydrocarbon properties have not borne fruit, as more than a tonne of leaves had to be burnt to get 100 or 150 litres of fuel.

 

Scientists believe that Pillai's process is worth investigation considering the high cost of importing oil. But, whether the experiment can be scaled up to first a pilot plant level followed by full-scale commercial production is still to be seen, Ganesan said while talking to Business Standard.

On its part, the institute has come forward to help in this process provided the government funds the programme, he said. Convinced with the demonstration, the scientists who actually witnessed the process have been asked to submit a report to the director of Indian Institute of Technology,Madras.

Ramar Pillai has done his job and it is now up to the scientific community and the government to check if the process is a commercially viable one, he said. But, as a first step, the government should help him get a patent after which he has promised to reveal the mystery herb, the catalysts used and the method applied.

The commercial success of the venture will depend on such intangibles as easy availability of the herb and its adaptability to large-scale commercial cultivation, cost of the process involved in converting water to oil using the herb etc.

Until such time, petrol, whose production and consumption is now measured in million barrels daily will continue to rule the roost.