Marker chemicals use likely to check petrol adulteration

By N. Ravi Kumar

CHENNAI, MARCH 26. Use of marker chemicals to check petrol adulteration is under the active consideration of the national oil companies.

Looked upon as a cost-effective method to tackle the multi-crore fuel adulteration menace, city consumer groups have been for quite sometime now demanding the introduction of markers. It is not easy to adulterate petrol doped with the fuel soluble chemicals as it has a unique digital identification code.

It is reliably learnt that two national oil companies have decided to launch markers on a pilot basis at their terminals near Mumbai before June and extend it to other cities including Chennai. An indication to this effect was given by the companies at the recent meeting in Mumbai of a committee constituted by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on fuel quality.

Says Mr. R. Desikan, Trustee, Concert, a consumer organisation campaigning against fuel adulteration, ``marker chemicals will prove to be a great relief to the consumers, provided the system is enforced properly''.

The estimated cost of using markers is said to be as low as two paise per litre of the price of the `marked' fuel. Adulteration of the fuel doped with markers could be detected using a portable electronic device and tests, using 20 ml of the suspect product, in only a minute. Nearly 30 countries the world over use markers as a measure to prevent fuel adulteration.

The effectiveness of markers, however, is suspect when it is not added in a precise and metered manner to petrol either at the refinery or at the oil depot. Since, it is not difficult to manipulate once the molecular structure of the chemical is identified, bio-markers appear to be a better alternative. Markers using a column of anti-bodies for detecting the presence of adulterants and quantifying it with the help of a flurometer are also available.

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Section  : Southern States
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