Fuel cell industry seeks support from government: Dr. Velayutham

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SME Times News Bureau | 20 Jul, 2016
Director of Sainergy Fuel Cell India Private Limited, Dr. G. Velayutham in an interview to SME Times said that the fuel cell industry seeks support from the government. He said, "Government still ready to support only national labs, thing should change they should link industry with national labs for the joint product development mode."

The fuel cell technology, which produces electricity with the help of water, hydrogen and oxygen/air, offers high conversion efficiency, modularity, compactness and noise-free operations. The widespread use of fuel cells for power generation, transport and other applications is expected to reduce dependence on scarce fossil fuels and help in preserving the environment.

Sainergy Fuel Cell India Private Limited offers a proprietary technology for making catalyst coated membrane (CCM) as well as membrane electrode assembly (MEA) for PEM Fuel Cell.

Excerpts from the interview...

Since how long is your company operational and what are your key offerings?
Dr. G. Velayutham: Ours is a first Fuel Cell components manufacturing company in India, offering fuel cell electrode and catalyst for various fuel cells like polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFCs), DMFC, etc. we also have wide range of fuel cell catalyst.

We are in this area of manufacturing for the last 7 years

Which are your major markets and why?
Dr. G. Velayutham: Major markets from education institutions like NITS, IITs etc and research institute like CSIR labs and DRDO labs.

What are the usp's of your offered products?
Dr. G. Velayutham: Generally most of the fuel cell components are imported from various countries. This will increase the cost of your components and also delivery time. You cannot ask for customized products for your research purpose, they may supply if you agreed for large volumes. On the other hand we can supply customized products with cheaper price and learn time for the delivery is less, this will save customer time. We also provide technical support this will help to choose right products for your applications. We will interact with you for any special modification required for his products.

What new things are you planning to do going forward?
Dr. G. Velayutham: We are planning to make education kits for low temperature Fuel Cell, and more demonstration project to promote fuel cell stack.

What is the current business scenario for your industry and what steps do you expect govt. to take, which help your industry grow?
Dr. G. Velayutham: Currently we are mainly focus on product developments and improve the standard of our fuel cell components. We are also planning to conduct fuel cell workshop to promote the awareness on various fuel cells. Government still ready to support only national labs, thing should change they should link industry with national labs for the joint product development mode. So industry also needs funding to focus more on products mode. This will help us to scale up from prototype to products, this will help both national labs as well as industries to improve the quality of the products. Government can support the industries with a mission mode program mode.