NEW DELHI: An Indian high school dropout claims he can tum water into a petrol like fuel by mixing it with a herb he discovered in the hills. Scientists witnessing his demonstration at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) said they were baffled. “It is incredible but true,” exclaimed IIT chemist N.K. Jha who organized 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 dis covered the amazing herb seven years ago has been doing precisely that in his village near Rajapalayam in the southern ‘state of Tamil Nadu.
Pillai, who was invited to Delhi by Murti, says his herbal petrol would cost one rupee per liter. All he wants from DST is money to put up a plant in his native price and personal protection.
He recently had an attempt on his life for refusing to part with his secret “‘1am personally convinced it is a discovery worth pursuing,” said Ramamuri 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 Celsius.
“We have no doubt that we are sitting on something very big,” Ramamurti said. “But we must proceed carefully and system atically.” He said DST has assigned the highest priority to get Ramar’s invention patented. The department has also ac ceded to his request for funds to erect a 300liter per day pilot plant at Rajapalayam. Simultaneously, the best scientists in the country are going to be assembled to understand the chemical process in detail before setting up a plant with a production capacity one million liters herbal fuel per day, Ramamurti said.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 18, 1996
