Coconut oil as fuel under study

By K.Ramachandran

CHENNAI, MAY 31. An inter-disciplinary research for using coconut oil as lubricant and fuel in automobiles has been launched by the Anna University here.

The university, which has the oldest automobile engineering departments in the region, and also the internationally recognised studies in energy systems, has taken up the research following a request by the Coconut Board of Kerala.

Though, research in this direction has long been done at various levels, the current effort is aimed at finding out whether coconut oil can be used directly as a fuel after some process or would it need some additives. Its impact and effects on engine performance are also being studied, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. A. Kalanidhi, told The Hindu.

He said the Institute of Remote Sensing in the university was developing a global position system (GPS) for automobiles in Chennai. ``As an experiment, we want to instal a few GPS units in some VIP cars to see the efficiency of the system. The idea is to have a GPS with ideal precision level fixed in some of the automobiles soon. Before that we want to make some course corrections and update the digitised maps of Chennai.''

Meanwhile, a Chair set up by Amalgamations Group in the Centre for Automobile Research and Training (CART) would also be reactivated. The university was considering to move it to the MIT campus at Chromepet, which houses the old automobile engineering department.

At a time when Chennai's importance in the automobile sector was increasing, CART could train `down the line personnel' in the plants of Ford and Hyundai. While high-end research was available in the countries of original manufacture itself, ``adapting research for Indian conditions could be the focus of CART,'' academics say.

Making the vehicles suitable for Indian road and weather conditions could be the focus area, as also testing the road- worthiness of imported foreign vehicles.

Accident reduction using latest technologies could be another area of research. Using low power lasers to trace an incoming vehicle or intrusion on the highways, which could signal the driver or activate an automatic braking system are areas in which studies can be taken up.

With growing awareness of making vehicles pollution-free, there is also a need for standardising pollution testing and calibration equipment. At present, such facilities are not easily available. The university could be a declared centre for certifying the pollution detection equipment on behalf of organisations such as the State Pollution Control Board, experts note.

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