| Squadron Leader (Retired) B.N.Kesava Chandran, Lakkidi, Ottappalam, Palakkad |
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Will it be stretching credulity a bit too far to claim that latex from rubber tree is capable of being refined into hydrocarbons, the family of petroleum fuels?
Well, Squadron Leader (Retired) B.N.Kesava Chandran is aware of the irony of his ‘claim’ or ‘observation’ that refining the sticky milk does produce a liquid. That is why in a letter to the Petroleum Minister he was at pains to underline his credentials and to suggest that his observations may be further studied.
Following this he was invited by the Indian Oil Corporation to Faridabad, where he exchanged his observations with the scientists of the Research and Development Centre. The scientists were able to refine in laboratory conditions, what he had refined in his home. According to chemical report, the mixture is rich in unsaturated hydrocarbons called olefins.
73-year-old Kesava Chandran had read somewhere that synthetic rubber could be produced out of petroleum products. A query then came to his mind: if that is so, will vice versa also be true? That is, won’t it be possible to extract petroleum products from latex?
He gathered an earthen pot, a tin lid, a little bit of hose etc and fabricated his distilling unit. He initially mixed latex (tree lace) with water and refined it in the crude set up. Later he distilled tree lace separately and that produced more of the ‘liquid’.
He is preparing to approach the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore to understand the commercial prospects of his discovery.
Courtesy: Malayala Manorama, March 27, 2005.
Contributed by: Administrator
