Cars Fuelled by Water & Aluminium? IIT Roorkee’s New Innovation Is Brilliant!

According to the team from IIT, the prototype has tremendous potential for mass production.

By Rayomand Engineer

October 12, 2018

With the rising prices of fuel, people are already looking at alternative modes of transport, electric cars being one.

But what if you had a car that could run on water?

Well, the country’s brightest minds at IIT Roorkee have come up with the prototype of an electric car that requires no fuel or even electricity, and will cost as much as your standard car.

The only difference?

This prototype draws power from water and aluminium and is claimed to have zero emissions.

According to a report in The Print, the students at IIT Roorkee had started a venture called Log9 Materials, which developed the electric car. The project is based out of an incubation cell, started two years ago.

So how will this car work?

The IIT Roorkee team of Log9 Materials, that has worked on the car that runs on water and aluminium. Image Credit: Log9 Materials

The car will give a range of 1,000 kms on a single charge and will require 1 litre of water every 300 kms.

Once you cross the 1,000 km mark, the aluminium plate will need to be replaced.

Costing Rs 5,000, the replacement will not take longer than 15 minutes.

What’s more, if the demand increases, the cost is likely to go down!

The process of running the car on water is based on simple fuel cell technology, which uses electrochemical reactions to produce electricity. The graphene rod along the metal plate generates electricity with water as its base for the chemical reaction.

The generated electricity is sent to an electric motor that fuels and drives the car.

The founder and CEO of Log9 Materials, Akshay Singhal, also confirmed to The Print that his startup is already negotiating with automobile companies regarding mass production.

Other automotive experts have lauded the idea as well, and in The Print, Tutu Dhawan, an automotive expert and journalist, who happens to be on the board of advisors to the Delhi government, said this technology could be the future of motoring.

The Government is very clear on its stance on vehicles using alternative sources of fuel and is optimistic about electric vehicles. And innovations like these will fuel India’s dream to achieve electric mobility.

Having said that, it is true that cars and SUVs powered by fuel cells are expensive. The biggest challenge for the IITians will be to keep the car’s production cost in check. Mass production would require the need for proper and durable batteries. And if this is addressed, this innovation could perhaps solve issues faced by electric vehicles today, namely range and charging point.

Well, here’s hoping that the IIT Roorkee innovation gets into production for a cleaner and greener planet!

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Featured Image Credit: Log9 Materials.

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