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Tamil Nadu
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Chennai
J. Vishnu explains how the cow dung fuel cell works. CHENNAI: He is just in class X and his work in using indigenous material in microbial fuel cells is soon to be published as a paper in a scientific journal. Chettinad Vidyashram’s J.Vishnu bagged the National Award for his research project on “Flexible fuel cell for Villages” at the Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS) National Fair that was held recently at Science City, Kolkata. The 15-year-old, who has been working with T.S. Natarajan, professor of Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, is very excited about the award and wants to work towards improving the project, which is about using cow dung to produce electricity and lighting up rural India. In his version of the cow dung fuel cell, he has already replaced the imported electrodes with graphite sheets and also designed a new kind of chamber material in place of the glass containers. “His improvisation and indigenous touch was one of the factors that helped him at the IRIS. The judges there look for innovations and if the work is originally done by the student,” said Dr. Natarajan, who guided Vishnu. Vishnu, who has a small cow dung cell unit lighting his reading lamp at home, says his next step would be to try to drive a LED to glow by stacking more units together. Then there would be research into replacing the membrane. “Presently I am using Nafion, a proton exchange membrane manufactured by Dupont. A 10cm x 10cm sheet costs US $ 500. If that is also replaced we can definitely take the technology to the villages where cow dung is available in plenty,” he added. Of the 1100 participants at the IRIS 146 were chosen for the finals and Vishnu was adjudged the overall winner. To represent IndiaAn A+ student in academics, he is also a national swimmer. Vishnu would now represent India at the largest Pre-College Science Fair in the World at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) to be held in Nevada, US, in May 2009 and also at the International Exhibition for Young Inventors (IEYI) held in various countries every year. The school presented Vishnu and his achievement at a press meet here on Wednesday. School Correspondent Meena Muthiah, who congratulated Vishnu’s teachers, parents and guides, hoped that more youngsters would get into research. School principal S Amudha Lakshmi was also present.
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