In its series of Guest Lectures and Thought Leadership Programmes, PetroFed organised a lecture by Dr. Balasubramanian Viswanathan, Emeritus Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai at SCOPE Convention Centre, New Delhi on  September 18, 2006.

Introducing the subject, Session Chairman Sh. M.S. Ramanchandran, former chairman, IndianOil, and Chairman BHP Billiton India, brought out that the concept of fuel cells has been known for more than 150 years but they have still not become a viable source of energy.  They are efficient and environment friendly, he said.  The cost, however, works out to nearly 4,500 US$ per KW as per US Department of Energy.

Dr. Vishwanathan, Mr. Ramachandran said, was eminently suited to speak on the subject. He is a fellow of the Tamilnadu Academy of Sciences and has over 500 research, scientific and symposium papers to his credit besides over a dozen patents. 

Dr. Vishwanathan’s presentation dwelt in detail on not only the various types of fuel cells but also brought out the state-of-art investigations being pursued in various laboratories in the world.  He also addressed various issues of commercialisation of fuel cells.

Participants were earlier welcomed by Sh. Y. Sahai, Director (Comm.&Mktg.) and a vote of thanks was proposed by Sh. O.P. Thukral, Jt. Director (Planning).

There was tremendous interest aroused on the subject which was demonstrated by the extended open session.

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