India’s IIT-Jodhpur has developed a ‘future fuel’ made of sunlight and water

• An Indian educational institute, IIT-Jodhpur, may have found a way to develop oxygen-free hydrogen which can be used as natural fuel.
  
• The fuel has the potential to achieve India’s dream of reducing volume of its oil imports by 30%.
  
• The team has used a catalyst called Lanthanium to break down hydrogen and oxygen resulting in a fuel with ‘zero emission’ capability.
  

India, a country that’s currently suffering from rising fuel prices and high vehicular pollution, may be able to heave a sigh of relief as one of its educational institutes has found an alternative natural fuel which can be used instead of petrol.

The Indian Institute of Technology - Jodhpur (IIT-J), has discovered an innovative way to develop a ‘future fuel’ which has the ability to kill to two birds with one stone. One the one hand, It can reduce India’s pollution level by reducing vehicular pollution. And on the other, it has the potential to reduce the country’s volume of oil imports by 30% .

The fuel, which the institute claims is a ‘zero emission fuel’, can be developed using a catalyst called Lanthanide. The catalyst absorbs oxygen molecules leaving the hydrogen behind -- in order to be used a nature fuel. An idea that was inspired by the process of photosynthesis.

The team, which has been doing research since its inception in 2008, have tried at least 700 different catalyst finally to end at Lanthanium. IIT-J is further mulling over using clay as a catalyst to develop the fuel.

Currently, researchers around the globe are finding it difficult to trap oxygen while producing pure hydrogen as pointed out by the team leader of the research project, Rakesh Sharma.

Unlike the hydrogen fuel which costs around thrice the price of petrol in India, the ‘future fuel’ has been produced at a very low cost. That being said, the final bill that people will have to bear consuming this ‘future fuel’ will only be known after full scale production begins for the masses.

Many luxury car brands like BMW and Honda have earlier tried to promote hydrogen-run cars but weren’t able to garner the attention of the public because of its exuberant prices.