Herbal Fuel

                  A  high school dropout from Tamil Nadu,  India  created
             history  when  he turned water into a  petrol-like  fuel  by
             mixing it with a herb he discovered in the hills.
        
                  What  this discovery means is that given the  herb  you
             can convert plain tap water into a fuel that can drive  your
             vehicle. In fact 30-year-old Ramar Pillai who discovered the
             amazing  herb seven years ago has been doing precisely  that
             in his village near Rajapalayam in TamilNadu.
        
             The product burnt with a sooty flame, smelled like  kerosene
             and on distillation yielded a pure hydrocarbon fraction with
             a boiling point of 170 Celsius.
        
                  Simultaneously, the best scientists in the country  are
             going to be assembled to understand the chemical process  in
             detail before setting up a plant with a production  capacity
             of one million litres herbal fuel a day.
        
                  To produce petrol, leaves and barks of this  plant  are
             cooked  for  about 10 minutes in hot water. The  mixture  is
             cooled  and stirred after adding a little salt, citric  acid
             and  traces  of  a few unknown chemicals.  Once  allowed  to
             settle the liquid fuel, which is lighter than water,  floats
             and  is  separated by filtration. The entire  process  takes
             less than 30 minutes.