While the country frets and frowns about the fuel price hike and environmental degradation, a group of youngsters are setting out to show the nation that the solution lies within and is not formidable to achieve.

Through their initiative to promote clean energy, they present an opportunity to resolve two issues in one attempt. That of developing clean fuel and a clean environment.

A team of six professionals will begin their journey to show the country not just the need for clean energy resources, but also that achieving it is not merely an attempt on paper.

The team called ‘Momentum From Waste’ will drive through the country on bio-diesel creating awareness on the same. The group comprising an engineer, MBA graduates, biotechnologist and a clean energy technologist will drive over 6,000 kilometres across 21 towns and cities in India on 900 litres of bio-diesel.

Developed by using waste vegetable oil from restaurants across the city, the group will carry the message that India has tremendous potential for clean energy through plants as well as waste such as oil, according to Avinash Narayanaswamy, a Bengaluru-based chemical engineer and a post-graduate in Sustainable Energy Technology from the University of Twente in Netherlands who is leading the mission.

“About 300 to 400 litres of bio-diesel has been developed with plants such as pongamia and Jatropa along with the Karnataka Bio-fuel task force while the remaining 500 litres has been made with waste vegetable oil. The Tata Sumo has been modified to run on this clean fuel that was developed in the reactor designed by us with the help of University of Agricultural sciences (UAS) in the city. The mission across India will include interactions with farmers, civil society and universities,” stated Mr Narayanaswamy.