Pillai, who speaks only Tamil, is extremely wary. Once the task of the patent application is overcome, we can move on to the big league. It is definitely an incredible fuel. But British experts are sceptical. It is a bit difficult to understand how he could possibly produce a stable hydrocarbon material in such vast quantities from plant material.
Plants are mostly water, anyway.
He claims that he can make his fuel by boiling the unnamed herb in water, then adding lime juice, salt and certain chemicals. The fuel is then skimmed off the top of the mixture. But Dr Paul Phillips, a chemist at Nene College of Higher Education, said that there were two proven ways of producing energy from plants. The other was to ferment plant material until it became an alcohol. In Brazil, fuel was produced by fermenting plant material into ethanol.