Recently I had been to a workshop on Clean Development Mechanism in power generation and transport organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). There were serious deliberations about the arrival of Kyoto Protocol and impending carbon trading where developed world will pay for renewable energy projects in developing countries. It was stated that India despite all its shortcomings in other industry sectors, has been the leader in implementing renewable energy projects like wind, biogas, biodiesel, mini-hydel and solar power.
While coming back I was pondering about these issues and was stuck in yet another traffic jam. But this time it was different. Numerous autorickshaws waiting for filling up gas on Residency Road, had jammed up the junction. The issue is simple; despite ONGCs and Reliances exploring trillions of gas reserves, the supply at the retail end is just a trickle. While the common man is willingly taking up eco-friendly fuel, there is nobody to supply! Is our beloved government waiting for the New Delhi kind of crisis where the public transport came to a stand still in 2001 due to the lack of CNG gas supply…
Fuelling innovation
A private firm getting praised for innovation is an everyday occurrence, however a public sector organization focusing on innovative processes is still a rare event. Recently at the TERI seminar on Clean Energy Development Mechanism, KSRTC’s innovative process in cleaner energy was brought to light. Ananda Rao P S, Environmental Officer, Karnataka State Road Transport Corp., presented an enlightening session of a diverse set of innovations under implementation. For a company with 4706 buses carrying 22.50 lakh passengers everyday, every drop of fuel saved matters; so KSRTC has made concentrated efforts to improve fuel efficiency.
To begin with a noteworthy innovation to improve thermal efficiency of the internal combustion engine has been developed. The idea is to inject water into the combustion chamber to react with diesel and air, inturn lowering the combustion chamber temperature and burn the air/fuel mixture more efficiently thus helping avoid engine knocking. The water entering the cylinder with the compressed air will work to cool these surfaces and reacts with Carbon Monoxide converting it into less harmful CO2. After it completely releases the energy in the fuel, it comes out as super heated steam.
The second innovation was to mix 10% blend of Biodiesel extracted from Honge oil. Since the huge fleet of KSRTC buses consume an enormous amount of fuel everyday, a little saving can go a long way. Right now the KSRTC Doddaballapur unit is utilizing nearly 8000 liters of Biodiesel mixed with regular fuel, which not only gives better mileage, but also acts as a engine lubricant due to its viscose nature. http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/nov172005/state17222020051116.asp
The most spectacular innovation which is being implemented in KSRTC is an international patented design done by Somender Singh and the TIFAC Lab of RVCE College. Somender Singh is an innovator par excellence who has dealt with bikes, microlight aircraft and diesel engines. He has innovated upon an existing diesel engine to get nearly 15-20% fuel efficiency which could prove to be revolutionary change since the advent of internal combustion engine.
Known as Groove Technology it is about carving few grooves in the insides of combustion chamber so that the fuel-air mixture is churned well resulting in complete combustion. Though till now no manufacturer has come forward to adopt this novel idea, Somender has went ahead completing his prototype at the TIFAC lab. If everything goes well KSRTC will be the first company to take up this futuristic idea in fuel efficiency. http://www.somender-singh.com/
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