Petrol from plastic? Nagpur holds the secret

Heard that before?

Zadgaonkar, with two Indian patents behind her, is but busy fielding an ugly controversy over allegedly forging an approval letter for her PhD. Two years after the invention went public, her PhD guide still wants his share of the credit.

But petrol kings from Faridabad to USA, Japan and Germany don’t care. They want to grab the formula. The Zadgaonkars say they trust Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), not foreigners.

After a presentation by the Parliamentary Advisory Committee (PAC) of the Petroleum Ministry — organised by old friend and PAC member Shiv Sena MP Satish Pradhan, who met minister Ram Naik and President Abdul Kalam — Kalam’s office wrote to the Department of Science and Technology on January 30 to ‘‘take appropriate action.’’

‘‘I thought if her claim was true, it could solve the global problem of plastic disposal. Naik sent an expert team to Nagpur to take samples. I also raised the issue in Parliament and met Kalam,’’ Pradhan told The Indian Express.

Demos were arranged for Naik, an IOC team led by executive director Sobhan Ghosh and three chief research managers at Faridabad on March 5 and 6, with 11 litres of petrol produced.

IOC’s report confirms that waste plastic is fully converted into fuels and value-added products through the technique. IOC is happy that petrol thus produced contains .02 pc sulphur, compared to 0.25 to 0.1 pc in regular fuels. The only disadvantage is high olefins and diene contents, which, the IOC report says, can be eliminated by known methods.

Dean of Research & Development at IIT, Mumbai, Professor K C Khilar felt that it is an ‘‘interesting development’’ if the facts portrayed were true. Professor V A Juvekar, also from the Chemical Engineering department of the IIT, said: ‘‘In theory, it is possible to make petrol from plastic because it contains the same hydrocarbon chain of molecules as found in gasolene. So it is a much more easier process than making petrol out of water!’’

Word has spread beyond Faridabad. Japanese oil giant Izemitsu has invited the couple to Japan, with a message from their equipment financier Akash Madnani, to strike a 60:40 deal.

Joe White, director, US Applied Sciences Inc, New Jersy, was present at testing and the company has offered an MoU for major shareholding for the Zadgaonkars — on condition that the Americans control the international patent. Marlos Thormann, director of Germany’s Thormann Energy Solutions met the couple a fortnight back.

‘‘We can use any waste plastic recycled any number of times,’’ says Alka, who’s patent application has been published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

The secret formula: Shredded plastic waste — free of oxygen — is heated with coal and a secret chemical. The products include 80 pc fuel range liquids, 5 pc coke and 15 pc LPG range gases. One kilo plastic and 100 gm coal churn out 1 litre of fuel, which contains the gasoline range. More processing, and Alka claims it yields refined petrol.

The Zadgaonkar couple have demonstrated this technique at Delhi, Mumbai (for CM Sushilkumar Shinde) and Pune. Umesh has more ideas: ‘‘Municipal bodies can clean up cities by starting petrol units and provide fuel to employees, instead of paying conveyance allowance.’’

The PhD probe is still on. Two days before the Nagpur University convocation on January 17, it received a letter from external examiner Suresh Patwardhan at IIT, Mumbai, that he never gave his okay to the work, that the approval letter received by the university in his name must be fake. A probe confirmed the letter was forged. The couple claim innocence and point fingers to Alka’s PhD guide G K Ghoshal, alleging that he’s demanding co-inventorship. ‘‘We have complained to the University about it since two years,’’ says Alka. Ghoshal was unavailable for comment.