PM Modi and CM Devendra Fadnavis had visited stall of Siddharth Mayur at IIT-B on Aug 11, 2018
Mumbai : At a time, when fuel prices are soaring, competing with the price of gold, an Indian entrepreneur, Siddharth Mayur, claims to hold the magic bullet that can help save the nation. His technology will help India cut its gas bill, incurred by importing the commodity from Iran and other lands. Being eco-friendly, it will also help cut down greenhouse gas emissions, he says.
Mayur, who is from Jalgaon in north Maharashtra and whose ‘karmabhumi’ is Pune, has set up India’s first homegrown fuel cell company – h2e Power Systems Pvt. Ltd- with a focus on the agricultural and domestic sectors. The fuel cell can use biogas, methane, ammonia or any other hydrocarbon in gaseous form, as well as liquid fuels like wood alcohol and ethanol. Hence as the input is renewable, there is zero greenhouse gas discharge in the process and the only emission is welcome — distilled water and usable heat, all 800 degrees of it.
A follower of Gandhian ideology and a commerce graduate, Mayur says his interest was fuelled by his grandfather’s question. His grandfather, who comes from a small village in Jalgaon district, had once asked him how villagers could get continuous and cheap power supply.
“I was determined to find out how and do so. So, despite my commerce background, I carried out several experiments in villages for more than half-a-dozen years,” he says.
The mayor stated, “Using solid oxide fuel cells as the infrastructure server, we developed solutions that would help farmers convert their ‘farms into factories’ and create energy systems that can power rural as well as urban homes, industries, commercial spaces, provide energy security to the defence forces and also produce hydrocarbons.”
According to Mayur, using fuel cell technology is the equivalent of planting 500 trees per farmer per year.
The fuel cell combines as a hybrid system with solar and or wind power. “The power generation through fuel cell is more meretricious than that of Tata and Reliance,” he claims.
A three-bedroom flat normally consumes 15 to 16 units of power per day and a one KW fuel cell produces 24 unit per day. According to Mayur, excess power can be sold through the grid to Mahavitaran and the household can earn money. He claimed that the central government is bringing in a net-metering policy which will allow anybody to sell power.
The cost of each fuel cell generator will be around 2 to 2.5 lakh, weight will be around 80 kilograms and life of the generator will be 10 years, which can be extended by another 10 years. The commercial and domestic generator is expected to be launched in December.
“During an experiment in a village near Baramati in a sugarcane field, a farmer was able to use 20 per cent less water and marked the highest yield, while keeping the quality of soil intact. Equally, he was able to get 24×7 electricity, he used limited water at the appropriate time, for which earlier, he depended on uncontrolled water supply that affected the quality of land,” said Mayur.
The power generator is reversible — it can generate electricity as well as gasoline. This is how it will help bring down imports of gas from Gulf countries.
“It will bring in a revolution in villages and practically each one will become fully electrified. There will be no need to depend on power supply from power generation plants. This is not a miracle. More than a lakh of households in Japan have been using this engineering science,” he said.
h2e Power Systems has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Maharashtra to set up India’s first dedicated Fuel Cell manufacturing facility in Maharashtra and make the state a pioneer in fuel cell technology.