1. Xtra Edge February 2012 - Career Point

hydrogen refuelling station has also
been set up.
India Trade Organisation Promotion
( ITPO) will use the vehicles on an
experimental basis. The HyAlfa has
been developed under a joint project
by the United Nations Industrial
Development Organisation ( UNIDO)
International Centre for Hydrogen
Energy Technologies ( ICHET),
Mahindra & Mahindra and IIT-Delhi,
with support from the Ministry of
New and Renewable Energy. "The
aim of this project is to convert
vehicles so that they can carry and use
hydrogen - a carbon-free fuel - and
thus remove all pollutants," Mahindra
& Mahindra president (automotive)
Pawan Goenka said. He said the
vehicle is not yet ready for
commercial production and further
fine-tuning will be required before
moving in that direction. "Moreover,
we also have to look at commercial
viability of running a hydrogenpowered
three-wheeler as the cost of
hydrogen will be around Rs 250 per kg,
which is not affordable at all," he said.
This is a step in the right direction.
Finally India Inc. with support from
the likes of MNRE etc. is making
headway in vehicles driven by
alternative energy sources. Jury is still
out on whether Hydrogen is the way
of the future. Judging by the progress
made in the USA and Germany on
Hydrogen powered vehicles, we are
not quite there yet. There are not only
supply chain challenges, but
Hydrogen continues to be a costly
proposition. You can either produce
Hydrogen from hydrocarbon cracking
(which in turn has dependence on
fossil fuels) or by splitting of water
through electrolysis. This itself
requires around 5-6 kWh of
electricity. So unless the electricity
source is a renewable source such as
solar or wind, the electricity required
to split water itself is most likely to
come from thermal power plants,
thereby not giving any benefit.
However, as everyone knows, human
ingenuity knows no bounds and
technologies only develop
incrementally. I firmly believe that we
are one step away from a miracle
where both Hydrogen consumption
(by means of fuel cells etc.) and
Hydrogen generation (by means of
hydrocarbon cracking or
electrolyzing/splitting water) become
viable for mass production and
consumption. In the short term, we can
and must focus immediately on
"Hydrogen supplementation". By this I
mean - Hydrogen CNG (or HCNG in
short). New Delhi moved to CNG
public transport a while back. In the
short term, this did bring down the
pollution levels and particulate matter
in the atmosphere. After prolonged use,
we are now becoming aware of other
problems such as NOX emissions due
to unclean or inefficient burning of
CNG. NOX is highly carcinogenic and
now the levels of NOX in New Delhi
are far exceeding permissible limits of
WHO. One way to solve this problem is
to supplement CNG with Hydrogen. A
blended product called Hythane (trade
name for HCNG) is already under
experimentation by Indian Oil. In
conclusion, while Hydrogen powered
vehicles are all a step in the right
direction, the government should put
impetus on technologies that are more
feasible in solving current big-city
problems that Indian cities face.
IITian tops CAT 2011
CHENNAI: Ajinkya Deshmukh, an IIT
- Madras graduate, decided to put in
100% effort into preparing for the
Common Admission Test this time, and
got 100 percentile in return. He is one
of nine MBA aspirants in the country to
secure the top score this year. The IIMs
published the CAT 2011 scores on their
website on Wednesday.
On his success, Ajinkya, who wrote the
test for the third time this year, said, "I
always thought I haven't been making a
full effort while preparing or writing
the test. This time I was determined to
give my best. I told myself that I had to
do it this year."
Indian American sworn in as
America's top science official
IIT Madras alumnus, Subra Suresh, has
been sworn in as the director of
America's National Science Foundation
(NSF), the top US science body with a
$7.4 billion budget to support scientific
institutions.
"We are very grateful to have Subra
taking this new task," said President
Barack Obama at the White House
Science after Suresh was sworn in as
the 13th NSF director by John
Holdren, Obama's science advisor.
"He has been at MIT (Massachusetts
Institute of Technology) and has
been leading one of the top
engineering programmes in the
country, and for him now to be able
to apply that to the National Science
Foundation is just going to be
outstanding," he said. "So we're very
grateful for your service."
Suresh, 54, was confirmed by the US
Senate for a six-year term.
He has served as dean of the
engineering school and as Vannevar
Bush Professor of Engineering at
MIT.
A mechanical engineer, who later
became interested in materials
science and biology, Suresh has done
pioneering work studying the
biomechanics of blood cells under
the influence of diseases such as
malaria.
From 2000 to 2006, Suresh served as
the head of the MIT Department of
Materials Science and Engineering.
He joined MIT in 1993 as the R.P.
Simmons Professor of Materials
Science and Engineering and held
joint faculty appointments in the
departments of mechanical
engineering and biological
engineering, as well as the division
of health sciences and technology.
Suresh holds a bachelor's degree
from the Indian Institute of
Technology in Madras and a master's
degree from Iowa State University.
Suresh was nominated by President
Obama to become the new NSF
director in place of Arden L. Bement
Jr, who led the agency from 2004
until he resigned in May this yea
XtraEdge for IIT-JEE 4 FEBRUARY 2012