The Hindu : Front Page : Hydrogen prototype car likely by 2008

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Friday, Nov 23, 2007
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Hydrogen prototype car likely by 2008

Staff Reporter

‘The car will have no engine and will be completely electric’

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

G. Madhavan Nair, Chariman, ISRO (right), along with Keiji Tachikawa, president, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency at the 14th Session of the Asia Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum in Bangalore.

Bangalore: A prototype of a clean-energy, hydrogen-powered car could be on the roads by 2008. It will be the outcome of a collaboration between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Tata Motors, according to ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair.

“ISRO and Tata Motors signed a MoU a year ago and we are looking to see how best we can get a prototype model ready by next year,” Dr. Nair told presspersons on the sidelines of the 14th session of the Asia Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-14), here on Thursday.

Dr. Nair said: “At a time when pollution from petrol engines is becoming a matter of increasing environmental concern, hydrogen is going to be the fuel of the future where the only output will be water vapour. “The hydrogen powered car will have no engine. It will be a completely electric one. Hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen will combine in the fuel cell to produce electricity.”

A major hurdle, however, is the fuel cell technology. “We have not mastered the technology yet. We are trying to get some modules from outside.”

In the keynote address at the forum, Dr. Nair said India would play a “major role” in providing integrated disaster management support systems to the Asia Pacific region, which is vulnerable to cyclones, typhoons, earthquakes and tsunamis. Fishing communities need timely information.

There was a need to have “low cost communication terminals” to give information to the communities on impending events and rescue operations. “There is an urgent need for a constellation of microwave imaging satellites, which can see though clouds, as well as a need for more earth observation systems to monitor the parameters associated with global warming.” The lantern that fishermen traditionally carry could soon be transformed into one fitted with technology to help them send an SOS during emergency, Dr. Nair said. The lantern, developed by ISRO would have a transmitter and GPS device. It could be activated in case of an emergency, he said. “The signal can be received through INSAT by disaster management agencies, who can initiate rescue efforts.” The lantern would cost Rs. 5,000. Yoshitsugu Harada, Vice-Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan said that as communication infrastructure was insufficient in some areas of the Asia-Pacific, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will launch in 2008 a ‘Wideband Internetworking Engineering Test and Demonstration Satellite .’

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