Tech - Water-propelled cars may run on Indian roads,in about two decades

Manas Dasgupta
VADODARA: It may not be long before the cars will be running on the Indian roads literally on water! Sounds amazing, but the senior researcher of the central government’s Energy Resources Development Agency (ERDA), Vadodara, G. S. Grewal, believes that it could become a reality in a maximum of two decades or even earlier.
The ERDA has already developed techniques for using hydrogen gas, available in abundance from water, as fuel to run cars and other uses to meet the world’s energy crisis likely to arise from the diminishing fossil fuels. Based on the indigenous technology, the system developed by the ERDA for the generation of hydrogen gas would cost just about Rs. three per kilo watt per hour as against Rs. 9.3 required for the creation of same amount of energy from diesel.
Dr. Grewal was speaking at a seminar on “Impact and Benefits of the Petroleum Products and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Act, 2006, on the Society,” organised by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Power and Energy Society of India with the support of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Gas Authority of India Limited and the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation.
Dr. Grewal said the technology to use hydrogen as fuel for static installations had been fully developed and the ERDA was ready for commercial production, but the technology for using it in moving vehicles could still take some time in developing suitable containers to store gas. Pointing out that storing hydrogen in gaseous or liquid forms would be unviable, he said the ERDA had developed a magnesium-based alloy to use as hydrogen container in solid state, but was yet find an answer to the problem of explosion in the event of even a minor collision.