US to aid in fuel research in Chennai

Friday, 30 April 2004, 19:30 IST
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CHENNAI: The US initiative in advancing fuel-related research is all set to help several Chennai-based organisations to make car fuel environment-friendly and unadulterated. Hyundai Motors India, the local arm of the South Korean automobile giant, which has its factory in Sriperumbudur, 80 km from Chennai, will receive aid from the US Department of Energy to develop hydrogen fuel cells. Hyundai will get support from the second largest energy company in the USA, Chevron Texaco and UTC Fuel cells in the development of hydrogen fuel cell for its vehicles, said a company statement issued late Thursday. The five-year project will demonstrate hydrogen as an efficient alternative fuel. A city-based non-government organisation Concern has also set up a fuel testing facility that will receive a grant of $150,000 from the US Asian Environmental Programme. A fuel testing facility, being set up in Palavakkam, about 50 km south of the city, is supported by the California Air Resources Board and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB). The premier Indian Institute of Technology- Madras and Anna University will extend technology support for the project. The laboratory will detect adulteration at petrol pumps in association with the government's civil supplies department and submit test results to the TNPCB and the police. "Adulteration has become very sophisticated. Toulene, hexane and benzene are hard to detect when mixed with petrol. The present testing methods are inadequate," said R. Desikan, trustee of Concern. The civil supplies department of the state government, given the task of checking petrol adulteration has inadequate resources and staff, he said, adding Concern will now become a facilitator in the project.
Source: IANS