Cleaning Up Coal - Ravi Deka

It’s ironic how the world’s two most used energy resources are the ones getting the worst rap.
Petroleum is invariably associated with fundamentalist medieval regimes or brutal foreign invasions under the self-righteous guise of ushering democracy. While Coal, which produces 41 % of the world’s and 68% of India’s electricity, is usually thought about only in terms of pollution, mafia, miners dying in explosions and in the recent years; scandals involving corrupt Indian politicians and their Crony-Capitalist friends.

Though boasting India’s first colliery but only having 0.37% of the country’s reserves, in  North Eastern India, it is also infamous  for the so-called Coal Syndicate of Assam and the notorious rat-hole mines of Meghalaya. The precarious conditions and safety records of the latter even made it to the pages of the L.A. Times, leading to the current mining ban imposed by the National Green Tribunal.

It just takes a short 20 minute ride from Assam's capital Guwahati towards Shillong to reach Byrnihat, Meghalaya’s industrial hub. Situated not too close to Guwahati to be a nuisance and far enough from Shillong to be of  concern, the acrid sulfurous air and the grey sky above the town is a testimony of primitive level industrialization gone amok and the corresponding lack of any environmental regulations.

The many Steel Rolling mills there, all use Pulverized Coal Combustion(PCC) in their reheating furnaces whilst Pollution control equipment is either not installed or just never used. Similarly, all of the 40 plus Coal Coking units located in Assam and Meghalaya use the non-recovery type Beehive Ovens, whose design dates back to the early epochs of the industrial revolution and consequently are a source of considerable atmospheric and water pollution. Metallurgical Coke is produced by burning off the volatile components of coal, consequently emitting a host of air pollutants like particulate matters or soot; volatile organic compounds, poly-nuclear aromatic hydrocarbons , methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, along with sulfur-nitrogen oxides, directly into the atmosphere. Later the Coke is quenched with water, whereby any remaining volatiles and elements like sulfur and mercury are leached into the ground eventually percolating to a running water body or the ground water table.

The outdated Steam Boilers installed in various factories, especially the Tea gardens are another example of archaic engineering entrenched in the field of coal combustion. Many are relics from another age, while others are age old designs still peddled by Boiler Manufacturers to unsuspecting buyers lokking for a cheap deal. The end result is the same; low efficiency, considerable wastage in unburned coal and high atmospheric pollution.
Preferring to adopt a policy of either total ban such as in Goa, or turning a blind eye as in Chhattisgarh and Odissa, till date none of the State governments in India have been able to constructively address the problem of Coal pollution, while the central government could never formulate a coherent Clean Coal policy. A fact testified by  the Coal and  Natural Gas burning Badarpur Thermal Power Plant in Delhi, which run by the government owned NTPC had been recently declared as the most polluting plant in the country.

So far the only Clean Coal technology that has caught the imagination of the Indian government and private sector, is the controversial and prohibitively expensive Coal to Liquid (CTL) process. Being touted a way to reduce petroleum imports, Oil India first announced a pilot project in 1998 and subsequently in 2006 along with Coal India Ltd., made press releases promising a $2.5 billion CTL plant in Assam. The topic kept surfacing in the news sporadically but with no actual project in sight.

 Tata-Sasol, a collaboration between India’s Tata Group and South African Petrochemical giant Sasol made a few headlines and raked up a few controversies with their plan of building a $10 billion CTL plant in Odissa with a capacity of 80,000 barrels of oil per day. Jindal Steel too has proposed to set up a CTL project next to their DRI plant in Angul district also with a capacity of 80,000 barrels per day of oil products. The two plants, at an estimated cost of Rs 90,000 crore are expected to come up by 2016. Even the “anti-everything” CM of West Bengal, Mamta Banerjee jumped on the CTL bandwagon and applied to the centre for a Rs 10,000-crore coal mining and coal-to-oil project in Bengal.

There is no denying the fact that liquid hydrocarbons can be derived from coal using the Bergius and the Fischer-Tropsch processes and during WWII Nazi Germany was totally dependent on coal based synthetic fuels. In 1944 its annual production exceeded 124,000 barrels per day from 25 plants. From 1955 onwards South Africa’s Sasol had been manufacturing synthetic fuels from coal due to the oil embargo against their Apartheid regime.
A CTL plant has three major divisions comprising of the gasification unit, the liquid conversion catalyst unit and a refinery section, which makes it prohibitively expensive project with a long gestation period. It also requires a lot of land, consumes huge amount of water (upto 15 barrels of water per barrel of fuel produced) and has an appallingly low conversion efficiency of only 42%, meaning more than half the coal’s energy is lost in the process.

With government policies swinging between apathetic and draconian, the private sector’s fixation on touting controversial mega projects for the sole purpose of securing Coal blocks and the undeniable existence of thousands of outdated coal burning industrial units that cannot be scrapped overnight, the eventuality of any realistic implementation of Clean Coal Technologies in India does actually seem very bleak.


Ravi Deka is an energy efficiency consultant and

CEO / Dir. Technology at Creatnet Technology Pvt Ltd.

www.rade.co.in
www.creatnettechnology.com

Screening Out the Shylocks - Ravi Deka

Some would be smart and sophisticated, others downright rude and crude. One will act as if he is doing  a great favour, another regard you with utmost suspicion as if dealing a thief and the third, talk so condescendingly one would think that you already owe him money. Lets accept it; friendly, sensible clients who pay on time and do it willingly and respectfully are far and in-between.

I wish I could write a true self-help style article about how to find great, paying clients.
Unfortunately, even after working for decades I am clueless about it and still have to put up with freeloaders, moochers and talk-you-downs on a weekly basis. Thus, as I lack both clairvoyance or the skills of Cold Reader, with wisdom garnered from innumerable  insipid professional experiences, I created a strict manifesto for screening out Shylocks amidst potential clients and regimenting my work.

1. Never Do it For Free.

If you are good in something never do it for free even if it is your hobby. If you do it as a favour a few times, very soon people would take you for granted and the moment you refuse you would become the bad guy. Only while interning or as an apprentice can one afford to do a few free assignments, but again solely for the purpose of gaining experience and a portfolio, where the client is essentially your Guinea Pig. Remember that the often-touted argument about proving yourself is a bogus pretext to make you work for free. If a client hires you, it should be solely on the basis of what you had already done and not what you would do for him for free to prove yourself.

2. No Detailed Write-ups or Concept Notes.

When potential clients ask you for a detailed write-up or proposal, limit it to a one-page teaser or a very short presentation. If you give them a comprehensive report, chances are that it would be plagiarized and someone else will get the credit or the work, usually both. Once a suave Auto magazine editor requested me to write a hard-selling proposal to a bike manufacturer for sponsoring a series of motorcycling travelogues. I wrote an impressive pitch and it got accepted, but instead of me, he got one of his servile staffers do the job. The resultant series was atrocious and it felt like karma working to see the magazine fold-up in a few months, but for me as a freelancer it was a loss of time and potential income, not to say faith in people.

3. Price yourself reasonably.

Have a fair idea of what your service is worth and charge accordingly. In case you have a specific USP, try pricing yourself a little over the market average. Don’t get greedy because the client is a large corporation or has deep pockets. Large corporations are staffed with scores of employees who are ballasts whose sole claim to productivity is either throwing a spanner in the works or  getting people work for free or a pittance. The man with deep pockets probably got there by cutting costs everywhere as well. However once you set your price, never baulk down because it would be discounts all the way thereafter.

4. Don’t share Business Intelligence.

 While it pays to give the protective client an insight of your knowledge and exposure to your field of expertise, stop short from divulging anything that may be considered as Business Intelligence. It may come as an innocuous request for a Google link or a block diagram, but remember that it can be relatively easy to extrapolate technical ideas or uncover business secrets after getting a hint. While it may be very easy for you to get the daily prices of wool in Kazakhstan thanks to your wife’s 3^rd cousin’s uncle, but for others it would either entail a trip there or involve purchasing an expensive subscription to an online service. Every bit of authentic information has a price, so share it selectively and only if you see a tangible return, either monetarily or by way of goodwill and confidence building: you can’t eat brownie points.

5. Make Them Pay for Travels.

If a potential client approaches you himself but is in another town or part of country and wants to meet you for an initial discussion, make sure he pays for the passage and your time, otherwise let him come down himself. There were several instances when would-be clients promise to reimburse the travel expenses and later stop picking up the phone or answering emails. And there are also freeloaders who start or interject the conversation with “when are you planning to visit ……….(insert their location)”, but at least they are more honest. They declare upfront their lack of intent of paying for the journey, which automatically implies that they aren’t likely to compensate for your time, knowledge and work either.

6.  Limit Preliminary Interaction to Basics.

If the prospective client only wants to discuss again and again over phone or face to face but with no hint of any forth-coming payment, drop him, as he is either a time-waster or picking your brains for free. By the third meeting, long telephonic discussion or Skype conversation, one should know whether the deal is on or off and how much it would be worth. I had both former, as well as new potential clients call me up for hours at a time to discuss their forthcoming projects or technical designs, but the moment I asked for an advance they disappeared like a “Bat Out Of Hell” before the first rays of the sun ( I first wanted to give an analogy of me running away from a Transvestite Prostitute).

7. Recognize a Politician’s Promises.

 Don’t be led tales of  “grand opportunity, golden tomorrow” or in the  "we are in this together" pitch. It’s just a carrot on a stick, a ploy to exploit you or use your knowledge and contacts for free or at a discount. A genuine client should be first focused on what you can do for him today and not what you would get tomorrow.

8. Forgo Temptations of Ownership.

No client who hints of bringing you on board as a partner, but is also the main investor would ever treat you as an equal even if he or she fulfills the promise. In most cases, especially in South Asia it’s just another carrot and stick technique to make you work harder, for free or a pittance.

9. Real Friends Pay and also Deliver.

The only acid test in a professional relation between a client and a service provider is that of fees being paid and proper services rendered. Friendship is reserved for picnics and bars. Moreover, true friends always pay for the goods and services availed, and in turn shouldn’t also be  slackers or delivering half-baked services.

10. Don't get “wowed” by Loud Names.

They may be fortune 500 companies, but the people contacting you are usually lowly managers with limited clout on the lookout for a sucker who would initially work for free or peanuts in the hope of bagging a big account. In case they succeed in finding a sucker, its laurels for them, but in case something goes wrong, it’s your fault. Either way they remain safe, while you take the brunt on you professional reputation and finances.



Ravi Deka is an energy efficiency consultant and

CEO / Dir. Technology at Creatnet Technology Pvt Ltd.

www.rade.co.in
www.creatnettechnology.com

Posers Paradise & Tongue Toxicity - Ravi Deka

A couple of weeks back I had the opportunity to visit a pretty large plant, an old one, a sort of local Industrial landmark, but well past its prime where even the signs of decay were showing signs of age. The white wash was peeling off most buildings and most of the metallic structures were either rusty or thickened by innumerable coats of paint. Their staff too, either seemed  approaching retirement age or were youngsters who looked as if they had grown up in one of the employee's colonies and filled up the posts vacated by the previous generation.

Fuel Paradise
Walking the plant's internal roadways below smoking stacks and trying not to gag in air, breathable only if one is used to the smell of ammonia and rotten eggs, we made our way to see a senior engineer whose age made one think that he had  not only witnessed the commissioning, but even the laying of the foundation stone of the factory. For a change, he was quite amiable, offered us water, spoke about his 40 years of working experience and even discussed about hydrogen extraction technologies. It was only when he started off talking about fuels, that politeness and respect for age forced us to remain poker faced and stopped us from breaking into an all out guffaw. Leaving aside his insistance that HFO was a distillate and not a residual oil and that its density was .92-.93 and not .96-.98 as attested by the oil companies, he also assured us that in his entire career he had faced fuel adulteration only once and that he never needed to clean his Fuel storage tank because it doesn't contain a drop of sludge or water. To this effect they apparently never even bothered to clean their Fuel filters as they never choked. He concluded on a self satisfied and almost emotional note, that the oil company must be giving them special material because they were an old and large consumer. All this while his assistant sat silently and nodded his head in affirmation. There was hardly a case for us to talk about our sludge-free, homogenized emulsified Fuel, he already had paradise on earth.

Whats your Deal?
The meeting reminded me of another one of almost a decade back when a mentor, himself a pollution equipment supplier took me along to a Steel plant to make a presentation on Fuel Emulsions. The unit belonged to three partners, one a whole-seller of rice, the other of cereals and the third of utensils, all of who were oblivious to the workings of Steel rolling mill and left the task of running the plant to their foreman turned factory manager.
E ntering the plant I performed my first analysis which corresponds to a doctor asking a patient to stick out the tongue; I looked up at the chimney. I saw a column of thick black smoke with high draft, indicating not only very poor combustion, but also high excess air and furnace pressure. Once nearer I could see dull red flames shooting out from every possible orifice of the billet re-heating furnace. In short the entire combustion process and burner adjustment was atrocious and fuel consumption couldn't have been lower that 50-55 Litres of HFO per ton, which was at least 30-35% above the industry average.
After I finished my presentation is the best possible (intelligible) Hindi I could muster, the Foreman-turned-Manager smugly asked me, “look I am having an average consumption of 30 Litres per MT of steel in my furnace, tell me how much more would I economize if I use your Oil-Water-Juddad ( contraption)??” It didn't take long for me to reply, “not a litre, matter of fact I would strictly advise you not to even touch a single setting of your burners as even God would probably mess up things for you”. My sudden fluency in Hindi surprised me, while my mentor frowned disapprovingly. Predictably there was no sale and all the way back to Delhi I had to endure a long sermon as to the virtues of diplomacy and keeping the tongue in check.

Toxicity Tests & a Toxic Tongue
A decade onward I myself started appreciating the virtues of being selectively deaf and dumb with potential clients, especially when on a marketing assignment. But even here, occasionally  all my mentor's chiding fly out of the window when the other side not only starts spouting BS, but actually end up believing it, all with the air of abject self-righteousness. Recently when a plant manager who initially seemed  a very pleasing and sensible individual, ( what couldn't be said about his chief engineer) went off on a tangent as to what a great risk he would be taking by  trying out our Fuel Emulsion in his company's  boiler even for a day. And went to the extent of saying that he would require a toxicity test of our fuel to be done beforehand as his was a food company ( something he confessed he didn't do for the regular muck they was burning). Somewhere half way through the tirade, I interrupted  and asked in the most polite way possible “ I know I am shooting myself in the leg, but given your tough quality standards, concern for emissions and international parameters, how come you are still using HFO which by itself is a dirty, non-standard residual product, that too transported by unscrupulous transporters. Why not switch to Natural Gas instead? I know its now more expensive, but its way cleaner and safer, you are an international company with international standards to maintain after all.” An awkward silence followed and the meeting went downhill soon thereafter and my colleague has still not forgiven me till date. On my part this episode remains my perfect excuse as to why I shouldn't accompany them on marketing calls.


Ravi Deka is an energy efficiency consultant and

CEO / Dir. Technology at Creatnet Technology Pvt Ltd.

www.rade.co.in
www.creatnettechnology.com

Fuel Double Standards - Ravi Deka

"I am not running Greenpeace here," proclaimed a CEO of a large company to whom I was extolling the virtues and eco-friendliness of our Emulsified Fuels. My two hour session where  my every point  was cross questioned, countered or simply ignored, all stemmed down to one thing;  by how much would our fuel be cheaper than their current stock. 

Though we have already got used to this characteristic routine and now expect it from every potential client, I still can't help getting peeved when industry people,  especially the technical bosses just ignore the ecological impact and the long time maintenance related benefits derived from using a superior grade of Fuel.

Car Fuel
Once while facing a similar scenario, I suddenly asked my prospective as whether he uses the same criteria of buying only the cheapest fuel for his luxury car and whether he used the cheapest lubricants in it as well. Lets say he was startled for a moment, not used to having vendors question his life's choices and replied that no he didn't,  he used only premium petrol and the car manufacturer specified lubes. "Why not?" I insisted, after all fuel costs are the largest expenditures associated with automobile ownership after the cost of the car itself. He mumbled something about spurious fuel, poor performance, high cost of repairs and returned back to bargaining. My example of his double standards on fuels apparently didn't cut any ice, he wanted the cheapest HFO for his company's furnace.

Commercial Benefit!
The quest for "Commercial Benefit" (a term commonly denoting upfront price discounts in India) is endemic to all industries in India and has been one of the main factors sustaining the 40,000 crore fuel adulteration racket in the country. A myopic outlook, where the insatiable demand for discounts both for fuel as well as other consumables takes precedence over quality, the  longtime cost of ownership and most importantly the cost of downtime. A scenario where many fuel transporters are forced to pilfer and adulterate the very fuel they are entrusted to deliver simply because their clients are not ready to pay a proper freight rate and in most cases their fee doesn't even justify the cost of diesel spent on the trip.

When told about the ultra low formation of  soot and carbon deposits  on the Boiler Tubes  from Emulsified Fuels, which automatically increases the thermal efficiency and increases the gap between scheduled maintenance , most just shrug their shoulders, though we have also met engineers who nod in agreement, but invariably the conversation ends with,  “but you would have to convince our commercial people!!”

Have you repaired a Turbo?
Coming back to the CEO, I was not going to accept his guffaw on ecology with a vendor's forced grin and countered back, “point taken, but now do tell me if you know  the maintenance interval of your Generator's turbo-chargers or rather the cost of rebuilding one?” He didn't , but I knew  roughly that the expense was in INR 7 digits zone. I proceeded telling him the causes of turbo failure, which is as much due to lubrication problems, as to overheating due to being soiled by unburned carbon from poor combustion; and in the case of HFO engines, poor combustion is mostly caused by poor fuel. “But they are still working”, he protested trying to brush off my point, nonetheless my message had for once hit home.

Cost Of Downtime
Reflecting upon most  of my meetings with clients and seminars where I talked about Fuel handling  and  Emulsification, I realise that sooner or later I  always drift into an animated discussion about the actual Cost-of-Downtime.Where I have argued, lectured and even sermonized, that the actual cost of fuel was not restricted to its upfront price or consumption levels, but also involved maintenance related savings and the reduction of the cost of downtime. A cheaper fuel that constantly clogs  Burner nozzles and chokes  filters, necessitating countless interruptions in an operation is a more expensive fuel simply because its hampers the work flow and has a direct impact on productivity and maintenance. A cheaper fuel that coats the boiler tubes with a thick layer of carbon, ends up becoming a more expensive proposition because it decreases thermal conductivity and hence   the overall efficiency, not to say increases cleaning intervals which is directly connected to the cost of down-time. And finally, that the cost-of-downtime is not just restricted to the cost of spares or repairing, but encompasses everything from salaries paid, bank interest, profits lost, raw material stockpiling and production damages.

Logic??
At the end of the day, where is the logic in being so choosy about what goes into a car which is hardly used more than twice a day for ferrying one or two persons to and from work and yet be so  focused on purchasing the cheapest muck passing of as hydrocarbons to feed an industrial heart that has to work 24x7, and costs millions.


Ravi Deka is an energy efficiency consultant and

CEO / Dir. Technology at Creatnet Technology Pvt Ltd.

www.rade.co.in
www.creatnettechnology.com

If Only - Why Serious Motorcyclists wear a Helmet

IF ONLY

Guns don’t kill people, people kill people!!

Alcohol doesn’t kill; people just die from liver cirrhosis,

Tobacco trees never choked anyone; people just die from lung cancer

& Helmets definitely don’t safe lives as a person dies from old age anyway..

 Judging life’s progress by reminiscing the various sweet first times and “would be happy to forget” last ones, there are also the memories of different individuals with whom, whether willingly or otherwise, we spent any length of time. And surprisingly, while the nice, pleasant and good, are thought of only once in a while, it is usually the memory of the unsavoury ones that come cropping up every now and then. For me one such living example of God’s follies was of all things, an editor. I am not taking about Rajan here, but a certain individual who once headed an Auto journal for a short duration before he successfully drove it into the graveyard of dead publications. My association with him stemmed from the fact that I was their motorcycling correspondent-at-large; who because of being unpaid for months at a time, walked out just before their doors closed shut. Among the constant disputes that characterized our relationship, the most memorable one was when this narcissistic individual published a photo of himself on the cover, astride a Japanese crotch-rocket, sans a helmet. This provoked an avalanche of indignant reader’s mail (am still not sure if it was his face or the fact that he was not wearing a helmet), amongst which was also my private email to him voicing my distaste in his lack of helmet sense. He printed almost all of it in the next issue’s readers mail section, including my own mail and the response to all by Mr. Mad Max (as he used to call himself in print) was “It’s my life, and I decide what’s good for me.” The attitude was, if you don’t like my answer, stop reading this mag!! Many did.

A single truth that these vocal pro-choice advocates (irrespective whether it be seat-belts, helmets or babies), somehow never seem to acknowledge, is that one of the best ways of discovering that the world is still full of decent folks is at the site of a traffic accident. While the “its my choice not to wear a helmet” motorcyclist or scooterist lies sprawled across the tarmac in a blissful coma haemorrhaging from ears, their soul on the to play the harp or massaging the Devil’s tail, it is usually a group of total strangers who drop their own schedule and go out their way to deliver their mangled bodies to the hospital, file police FIRs and inform their grief stricken next of kin. A scenario little different from when a suicidee forecloses his or her life leaving behind a sea of confusion, discomforts and pain.

Having ridden across the entire country on a motorcycle, it is in my last few year in Goa, that I have witnessed the largest number of fatal accidents involving two-wheeler riders. Till date totalling six and four happening seconds before I arrived at the scene, involving people of different age groups, riding diverse makes of two-wheelers, at various times of the day and parts of the State. Their only common denominator; None was wearing a helmet!! 

Interestingly it is also in this very same State which has already senselessly lost 87 lives this year in two-wheeler accidents, there is this seemingly powerful lobby who call themselves the Motorcycle Action Group, who rally against Helmet laws and make press releases implying” Helmets don’t save lives.” 

Well something is seriously amiss here, and while I would refrain from publicly calling them a bunch of idiots (and protect myself from a libel suit, considering their spokesman is a lawyer), I  still can’t help taking an abysmal view towards this what seems to be a very Goencho phenomenon.

I shall skip past their prime argument  that “Helmets don’t safe lives” as the very statement is too simple to discard and is probably so pregnant with wisdom, that it is straight from the realm of esoteric Buddhist though, a Zen Kaona maybe. Something complimented by “what’s the sound of a skull cracking.” Unless of course there is an Emperor’s new clothes theorem lurking around. 

Where is concern’s the allegation about the nexus between helmet manufactures and the powers that be, the entire idea qualifies to be taken only with a barrel of salt. Matter of fact, helmet manufactures of the country still belong to the category of very small or cottage industries and hardly have any clout anywhere to affect government policies. And the down side of this lack of an organized sector is that much of the helmets reaching the shelves of our stores are either spurious or badly lacking in quality, their ISI markings not coming from a certification agency but some back alley screen printer’s workshop. 

If asked to pinpoint, why this tiny State sports such high traffic causality figures, I would first hold the bulk of the riders themselves responsible, as Goa in my opinion does have an extraordinarily  large number of atrociously bad drivers and riders. Not rash or speedy, but just plain bereft of any traffic sense. It is common to see a motorcyclist take a turn without looking anywhere but straight ahead, often straight into the path on an oncoming vehicle. Likewise it is a common sight to see people riding strictly on the middle of the road even at slow speeds holding up the flow of traffic. A scenario as appalling as it is frustrating that one can’t help wonder, what sort of an authority dishes out the driving licenses here and following what criterion.

The extremely large proliferations of the new generation lightweight economisers coupled with the State’s many winding roads provide another killing combination. Intended solely for carting sedate office goers, these new bikes are designed so much for fuel efficiency that they come with engines badly lacking in torque and tyres so thin, that they hardly accords any grip on the road and the slightest skid gets both the man and machine airborne. 

Bus and truck drivers no better then these two-wheeler riders and motorists in terms of driving skills, but at the controls of deadlier vehicles complete the picture by ploughing into each other and smaller machines every now and then.

As much as I dislike associating myself to this so called Action Group and their ludicrous ideas, I tend to agree to their stand that a compulsory helmet law would just add to another never satiated mulching ploy for the highway robbers in uniform. The same with their view on Interceptor cars, or rather the way they are being utilized. 

It is by some convoluted law of nature, the members of the police force across the country have an innate ability of converting any law into a cash cow for personnel benefit and acting like self-righteous fascists while at it. Nonetheless a helmet law or no law, when the wolf has decided on dining on the lamb, it doesn’t really matter whether the latter was drinking water upstream or down. About the interceptors and the ludicrous 40 kmph speed limit imposed on the various failing bridges, the less said the better. Defying their very names, none of these mobile toll collectors have ever intercepted anyone on a highway chase, exactly what they are supposed to do, and are content fleecing the unsuspecting tourist vehicles and those unfortunate enough to travel in speeds low enough to apprehend. Those speeding above eighty just skim by un-apprehended, while those at 50 odd have to pay up. Likewise, I wonder how many, if any, of these interceptor drivers are trained police drivers, not the kind that ferry officer’s wives to the market, but experts trained to capture offenders on highway chases?? 

Another often-occurring thought is why are these guardians of the traffic law never present in the most accident-prone areas of the state?? Having been almost run down by reckless trucks and tippers on the Raibander -Old Goa stretch a number of times, I finally gave up motorcycling on that road and till date am yet to see a police car regulating traffic on that stretch. Fleecing truckers and motorists with various real and drummed up charges on the wide Corlim, Banstarim, Kundaim stretch is easier.

Coming back to the subjects of helmets, I frankly fail to understand the reluctance of the people here to embrace a safety gear which though not guaranteed to save lives, drastically reduces the chance of one’s premature departure by the way of traffic accidents. Anymore than I claim to understand why people get tight-fisted when spending for the protection of their most vital organ, preferring to settle for a Rs 200 shell of dubious origin, instead of going for a quality product at Rs 500-600. After all no hospital stay comes at less then 10 times that amount, no matter how short the stay. 

Addressing the most used excuse about the weather here being unfavourable for wearing helmets, my own solution is to wear a not very common design of helmet (which incidentally is made in India for export to the US) it is open faced and does not cover the ears and is still strong enough to be DOT ( U.S Department  Of Transportation) certified. Not wanting to be accused by the MAG of being a helmet industries’ stooge, I shall not mention the name of the manufacturer and readers interested can contact me personally by email.

Lastly, an interesting observation from the last few years’ traffic death statistics: despite the large number of women two-wheeler riders in the State, their traffic related mortality rate is almost negligible unless they were sitting pillion. So it is my earnest request to the ladies of the land, no matter what your spouses, sons and siblings tell you about the unsuitable weather conditions, their motorcycling prowess or endlessly quote the ill-informed doctrines of the MAG, remember that HELMETS SAVE LIVES!!  And do so everyday all over the world. 

NAG, COAX and BLACKMAIL them in submission and make sure that the men in your lives never leave home without one and wear them while riding as well. The same applies to you ladies too.

After all no one deserves to become either a widow, a grieving mother and sister, husband, son or brother and none of the MAG’s loud proclamations are going to ease your pain or bring back to life if (heavens forbid) the inevitable happens and the only words which would make sense, would be IF ONLY….IF ONLY HE WORE A HELMET….

Festival of Blessings

The following article had been carried in the U.S. publication Whole Life Times and had been reproduced from its website. The article is also mentioned in the database of  the Australian National Library.

When I boarded the last bus from Tezpur to Rangapara, in the heart of India's north-eastern  state of Assam, the orb of the rising moon already dominated the winter evening. I knew a  Purnima (full moon) was approaching, more so because I was on my way to attend an  obscure Buddhist festival. And these are inevitably held on full-moon nights.  When the bus finally moved, the tiredness and irritation of the day's travel gave way to the  intent of studying the moonlit countryside. This lasted until the vehicle turned off the  highway to the side roads, which in daylight resembled nothing so much as a bombed airfield,  were even worse in darkness. The moon I had so enthusiastically planned to observe kept  bobbing up and down outside my window, disappearing at times, as the bus lurched from  one crater to another.  On my previous visit, I had arrived unannounced at Assam's Little Tibet, severely disrupting  the academic atmosphere of the State's only Tantric Buddhist seminary. This time, however,  the Tashi Cholling Ningmapa monastery radiated a welcoming aura of festivity. Outside the  gate stood many cars bearing registration plates of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan.  Inside, crowds of maroon clan Lamas and Annis (nuns) mingled with the laity. Music made  indistinguishable by the loud buzz of human speech blared from an unidentifiable source.   I managed to find a couple of familiar faces, and before long I was sitting in one of the  monastery's back rooms sipping butter tea and listening to warm words of appreciation for  responding to their invitation. A temporary surge of self-importance hindered me from  confessing that I am always on the lookout for one. Later, Rigzin Dorjee, the ever-smiling  son of the abbot, Venerable Terton Kunzang Dichen Linpa Rinpoche, explained to me the  significance of the next day's event, Wang, the annual ceremony for receiving blessings.  The monks had arranged for my hotel room near the railway station. All throughout that night  I could hear people arriving for the coming festivities.  The following morning, in what resembled a trans-Himalayan convention, throngs of people of  diverse communities and nationalities marched towards the monastery. Some, like the  Monpa and Sherkdukpen tribals of Arunachal Pradesh, as well as their Bhutanese neighbors,  could be identified by dress,  others by badges saying something like "Sherpa Association of Assam."  The ceremony had already begun by the time we reached the venue. The grounds were  thronged with hundreds of pilgrims, and scores more joined by the minute. The Rinpoche  and his son, aided by a few disciples, were consecrating a new section of the monastery  housing several sizable Mani prayer wheels. The Wang, I learned, would be bestowed in  the afternoon, preceded by dances (chams) highlighting aspects of Tibetan Mahayana  Buddhism.  First was the dance of Dorjee Drolod, a wrathful form of PadmaSambhava, the maverick  Indian Tantric who established the Dharma of Buddha in Tibet and is the tutelary deity of  the Ningmapa sect. Performed by the Drapas (student monks) of the institution, it featured  a Dorjee Drolod in a fierce wooden mask prancing amongst heavenly damsels in wigs,  each sounding a pentagonal Dambaru (tiny drum). Finally, he sat down and the heavenly  damsels pranced around him.   The dance of the spiraling Black Hat Tantrics or Nakpas was next, but the most interesting  performances of the day were the dances of the Garuda and the Yamdutas. In both instances,  the performers wore finely crafted wooden masks denoting their respective roles.  The Garuda dance displayed the amalgamation of Hindu thought within the Mahayana  Buddhist theology, where the eagle-faced Garudas are the destroyers of evil Nagas or  dragons who hid the Jewel of Bodhi. Chasing the dragons with spread arms, the Garudas  leapt in formations, culminating the act by clutching symbolic snakes in their beaks.  The skull-and-bone Yamdutas, meanwhile, put on a wild exhibition. The messengers of death  illustrated the relentless juxtaposition of serenity and suffering, the impermanence of life and  the ultimate end for each one of us. Often considered grotesque, the emphasis on the  hideous is well in tune with the Vajrayana and the Tibetan Mahayana doctrine.  Dressed in absurd ragamuffin attires with equally comical masks, jokers kept the audience  happy between acts. Whether playing a daft mendicant or a weird old hag, they never failed  to obtain steady peals of laughter, especially from the younger spectators.   Bearing a special significance upon the forthcoming rite, the Ging and the Zinbab Cham were  the two final dances before the commencement of the Wang. For the Ging Cham, dancers in  demon outfits rushed in frenzy amongst pilgrims beating their drums to chase away lurking evi l spirits. The Zinbab Cham invoked the deities upon the people gathered for the Wang.  Both were accompanied by furious drumming and a whole spectrum of strange "toots" and  "blares" from a wide array of Tibetan musical instruments, from huge mountain horns to small  trumpets and cymbals. The steady chant of monks dominated the background.   The time for bestowing the Wang finally arrived, and the pilgrims zealously rushed to take  places in the line filing past the Rinpoche and his entourage. Clutching the customary khada  or silk scarf, each aspirant received blessings from the Rinpoche by being tapped with a dadar,  a holy wand. Da means "arrow" and dar means "five colors," each denoting one of the five  senses. Then, each pilgrim was touched upon the forehead by a tsebum, a small pot-like  vessel imbued with scriptures and mandalas based on Tantric ecstatic exercises.   A ritual drink comprised of highly camphorated whiskey was served in a bowl made from a  human skull. The distribution of a barley sweet called tseril rounded off the observance.   After the day's boisterous festivities, I eschewed the noisy hotel near the train station, and  instead slept in the prayer hall beneath the stern gazes of the Guru Rinpoche  PadmaSambhava, Lokeshwara and Chensrezig. Outside, the full moon covered  everything with a pale silvery glow.

Saving Oil or Snake Oil??

snake oil (dictionary.com)

noun

1. any of various liquid concoctions of questionable medical value sold as an all-purpose curative,especially by traveling hucksters.

2. Slang. deceptive talk or actions; hooey; bunkum. 

From commuters puttering to work on miserly two-wheelers, to those who splurge on the latest imported four-wheeled status symbol, albeit a diesel version and the industrial sector for whom it comprises a major recurring expenditure, high prices of Fuel are a painful reality for all. However, whenever a technology that promises to save a few litres of the all-precious fluid is announced, it is instantly relegated to the category of Snake Oil Salesmen, in which none but the most gullible would believe in or actually spend any money on. 

But do they work?

The only question ever uttered about any of these wonder devices, additives or technologies is invariably “does it work?” Unfortunately, there is no single universal answer, as the field is varied, comprising of gadgets of all shapes, sizes and operating principles, liquids of different characteristics and backed-up by theories ranging from sometimes sensible to outright bizarre. Nonetheless, over the years, a trickle of  feedback from both the public and the industries as well as several unbiased studies found that many of these do work, some albeit erratically and others very well. So despite the smirking hosts of TV science shows, the opinionated professor who is also the local Skeptic Society’s chairman and sole member, or the general notion “if it works why isn’t everyone using them,” the field of Fuel Saving Technologies, which is almost as old IC engines, simply refuses to die out. 

Governments on their part, despite giving loud lip service to the need of fuel economy, do very little to actually support the cause due to a conflict of interest, as oil revenues and taxes are a major source of income. The vanguard of all hydrocarbon burning technologies in the US the EPA(Environmental Protection Agency) is chronically myopic towards any Fuel saving device or technology and usually does a very good job in discrediting the inventors.  Meanwhile the few times our Indian government or a reputed institution was in the news because of this subject, it was usually for all the wrong reasons. A classic example is that of one Rammar Pillai who in 1996 declared that he had concocted a herbal petrol, a claim check and endorsed by a number of IIT scientists, the Department of Science and Technology and countless political figures, but who gets arrested four years later by the CBI in a murky case for selling a noxious inflammable chemical soup sans any herbs as his wonder fuel.

Some do, others in fact very well.

The ever-climbing prices of Petrol and Diesel worldwide have resulted in a renewed interest in fuel saving and a slew of new, old and even archaic technologies are now being shared around the world thanks to various Internet forms dedicated to the subject. Technologies such as HHO, essentially a highly efficient electrolyzer that splits water into Hydrogen and oxygen are almost becoming a mainstream retrofit on cars, to the extent that even Police departments in several US counties are fitting them in their cars.

Now, take for example the most dis-believable gadget of them all: the Magnetic Fuel saver. Consisting of a tiny magnet attached to the fuel line of a car or a two-wheeler often sold by fly-by-night dealers with the most extravagant of claims. But interestingly, only recently it has officially surfaced that Russian, Chinese and many now South American Oil companies have been successfully using magnets to reduce wax build-up in their sub-sea pipelines. In the process proving that magnetic fields have a perceptible effect on the viscosity and flow characteristics of liquid hydrocarbons,  thus demonstrating that if such magnetic devices are made with due scientific research and laboratory tests, there is a strong possibility they could indeed improve the atomization of liquid fuels and consequently decrease fuel intake.

On the other end of the spectrum is the complex field of Fuel Emulsification where hydrocarbons such as Heavy Fuel Oil or Diesel are infused with a small percentage of water in micron sized droplets to improve burning efficiency and save fuel anywhere in the range of 5% to 25%. The process can be accomplished by cavitation, ultrasound or mechanical means along with special additives to keep the resulting suspension from separating or coalescing into their individual mediums. Fuel emulsification has proved itself across the world with big names like Elftotalfina, Caterpillar, Komatsu and PDVSA jumping on the bandwagon. Surprisingly the the EPA of USA carried out extensive tests on emulsified fuels and released impressive results. 

In India, the technology was endorsed by none other than the then President Mr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam who said, “Emulsified fuels are found to give much better emission reduction towards reduced particulate and Oxides of Nitrogen emission reduction along with fuel saving that it is now implemented in most of the developed countries.” 

And yet the number of  companies in the country or elsewhere adopting this technology for their oil fired furnaces, boilers or generators is still in single digits. The main reason being that the very idea of mixing oil with water is unpalatable for most, followed by misgivings that water would have a quenching effect on the flame or that the calorific value of the Fuel  would be reduced. In fact the EPA study on the subject revealed that an emulsion with 15% water actually has about 25% more caloric value than the base fuel of the same volume.

Not Snake Oil, but Lousy Salesmen all the same..!!

Despite the universal moniker of being Snake Oil Salesmen, deluded individuals or both, in real life most Fuel Saving Technology providers are just inexperienced or very naive businessmen and despite having the odd conman in their midst, the majority never started off with the objective of cheating anyone. As a rule most of them are startups consisting of a small team with limited finances due to  which their inventions despite giving positive results in controlled environments, hardly ever get extensively tested under real world working conditions before being released commercially. Consequently many of the products are crude, at best give intermittent results, with operating principles poorly understood by their creators themselves. 

Having little prior business experience they get quickly bogged down trying to market a “possibly-working” but definitely little understood concept and sooner or later almost all of them quickly zoom down an express elevator from starry-eyed ideology, through greed to cynicism before finally closing shop. In other instances, many spent half their lifetime inventing and perfecting their Fuel saver and sadly spend the other half trying to convince the world that it works at the same time paranoid that their ideas would be stolen or that they would fall prey to the shadowy strong-arm of the Oil lobby. 

Many also fall prey to dubious business practices by taking advances from clients or security deposits from dealer and later fall on the wrong side of the law for either failing to deliver or producing a substandard product that does not live up to the claims. Paul Pantone, the U.S. inventor of the infamous GEET, who spent a decade fighting legal suits and a stint in the psychiatric hospital is the perfect example of a discredited inventor. This however didn't stop the French from embracing his concepts and developing them further.  Known there as the Giller-Pantone system, this unique water-fuel doping system it has been replicated thousands of times and at least two companies are manufacturing fully accredited fuel saving gadgets based on his principles.

We are big, you are nobody.

If a fuel saving device or additive sold in the automotive markets still manages to generate some sales, the Industrial Fuel Saving Technology specialists (we would call them iFSTs) have it far worse. 

The first setback in the implementation of a Fuel saving technology comes in the guise of prospective clients who even after seeing a certain technology proving successful in one or two installations, have no qualms in audaciously demanding the works for free or on near impossible terms. They rationalize their argument as “they are offering a chance in a lifetime” and assure of a landslide of future business opportunities if proven a success with them, or simply that they are indulging in an expensive gamble by trying out an untested new technology. At times it is the client’s employees safeguarding their jobs and adopt a position with the reasoning that “if it works I win and if it doesn’t its at the vendors cost.” But with many companies it is almost an unspoken rule to exploit small vendors to the maximum.

The representatives of an Indian origin non-ferrous metal giant has set a record of sorts in wasting time of nearly every specialist of this field in the country by repeatedly asking for information, demands that they visits their various plants(obviously at their own cost) and later invariably bury any potential deal under an avalanche of  impossible terms and conditions from heavy discounts on pricing to unrealistic payment schedules, and demands of various bank and performance guarantees, which no supplier would ever agree to provide or be able to satisfy. 

Begrudging employees and rampant pilferage.. 

Even an industry  decides to implement a iFST, it is hardly ever smooth sailing, because contrary to their expectations of a “fit, forget and get magical fuel savings” system, the new additions requires regular maintenance, a strict handling and consumption measuring methods. Furthermore, instead of recruiting a new person for the job, generally someone from the existing staff is given the additional charge and invariably the new workload is met with a sense of grudge and profound skepticism. 

Likewise, very few industries have an independent energy-monitoring department and the area falls under the purview of the production department that by its very nature is biased towards maintaining and increasing productivity levels and not saving fuel. Consequently, fuel usage readings are frequently skewed and physical stock levels hardly ever tally with the figures in the books. 

Pilferage of fuel in its various avatars is another all pervading phenomena and typically comprise a long chain of participants right from the supplier to the transporter and frequently many a company’s own staff, right from the security and stores clerks right up to production, purchase managers and even to the occasional director. And as any Fuel handling or management systems automatically makes transparent all anomalies and reveals the actual stock and consumption figures, it is invariably sabotaged and the technology quickly declared a dud.

The Fall Guy

In the recent years, a number of steel rolling mills in India  signed up for a UNDP-GEF and Indian Ministry of Steels sponsored initiative for introducing energy efficient technologies into the sector. Others, had by their own accord installed Fuel saving devices in their plants, but within a few months virtually all gave up on their efforts  as their production staff made the new equipment and practices  , the scapegoats for all their own inefficiencies and shortfalls. 

The best example of how an iFST is made the Fall Guy, is the case of a government owned oil refinary in Eastern India, which on the directive of the head office to implement Fuel Oil Emulsification decided to design their own Emulsifier on the basis of a schematic diagram found on the internet. As per their own admission, Rs.25 Lakhs(USD 47,000) was spent on cladding of Oil tanks and pipelines, and making a new pump house where two old pumps were pressed into service. The only missing component was the chemical additive to suspend the Fuel-water emulsion, for which a global tender valued at a princely sum of Rs. 50,000/-(USD 950) payable only after delivery and conducted tests was floated. The design of their so-called emulsifying unit was bereft of the slightest engineering common sense and was guaranteed not to work under any circumstances. Likewise none of the people involved in this farce had the slightest exposure to the field of emulsification or had ever bothered to contact any specialist in the field. Predictably their tests failed miserably, but they had the Fall Guy in place: the vendor of the Emulsifying additive!!

Yes, it works, but it doesn't!!

There are also many instances when an iFST work flawlessly with the results for all to see on paper, but where the industrial clients blatantly deny the facts. Sometimes its just shoddy calculations but mostly it is to hide the actual fuel consumption statistics as the same could be extrapolated into actual production figures by the various government revenue departments. Occasionally, it is to prevent the provider from going to their competition or simply the human ego that doesn’t want the guy in front look too good. 

Rarely, motives are more sinister and a real life example is that of one Ghaziabad based Steel rolling mill. Having installed a Heavy Fuel Oil Emulsifier in their plant, they first tried to reverse-engineer the machine and consequently made changes that drastically reduced its effectiveness. Next came a torrent of complaints alleging that they were not getting any savings, but were proven baseless upon studying their production and fuel consumption records. Thereafter came blunt demands for the formulation of the chemical additive that was required for generating the Emulsion. When the vendor refused to bog down to their coercive demands the company unleashed a year-long campaign of pseudo-legal intimidations referring to a non-existent  arbitration agreement and appointing their own foreman as the so-called Sole Arbitrator. 

But, the Future 

Comprising a motley group of brilliant scientist and experienced technocrats who are also lousy businessmen,  starry eyed naïve idealists or battle hardened cynics, with the occasional charlatan in their midst, on first instances most fuel saving specialists  don’t encourage much confidence either in their product, technology or ability. 

Nevertheless, what also cannot be denied is that many of them are genuine experts in their field and know what they are doing and consistently deliver due results. 

On the other hand is the Industry, which desperately needs Fuel saving measures, but is rife with malpractices and internal corruption and yet ceaselessly tries to exploit small startups for their own benefit by either making them work for free or by trying to intimidate them into revealing their secrets. 

On the whole the future for iFSTs and their savants seems really bleak except for the fact that the prices of energy keep escalating and sooner or latter both the sides would have to settle in a mutually conducive professional environment.  Where the genuine experts in Fuel savings or energy management gets their financial dues and not expected to run after carrots, made the fall guy or be intimidated in revealing all their secrets and where the Industry on their part starts focusing internally and makes an earnest effort in bringing about transparency in their ranks and operations. 

Ravi Deka is an energy management consultant and a pioneer in introducing Fuel Emulsification concepts in the country. 

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