Enabling the Conventional Automotive Solutions to rise as a reliable solution, Aerostrovilos, with the LX-101 Micro Gas Turbine is acing to acquire the supremacy in Gas Turbine Power Generation, reducing the dependency on the west for the technological solutions in the manufacturing.
“Green energy solutions”- the voice raised out of all industrial verticals, rendered ‘zero-emission’ to be the meaning of sustainability. The elementary need, when it comes to green energy sources is having good storage systems
Emission of the pollutants from automobiles, being the most rising environmental urged the industrial world to look for alternative green energy sources, which is appreciable. However, the unreliability of such solutions kindles the need for a backup rather than a storage system in manufacturing, which is more about dynamism these days.
The uncertainty of the eco-friendly instills the spark inside the tech-leaders like Rohit to come up with conventional micro-gas turbines engine which retains the dignity of the environment along with sustaining the reliability in the product’s availability.
From conceptualizing the idea of a gas turbine and converting it into a market-ready product, Rohit Grover, CEO of Aerostrovilos speaks out of the challenges to Machine Maker giving insights of the startup’s evolution from a technical house to manufacturing house of a ‘Made in India’ gas-turbines.
Evolved from Chennai, Aerostrovilos Energy Pvt Ltd is an IIT incubated firm engaged in the manufacturing of micro gas turbine technology for power generation and automotive.
Acknowledging the fact that the gas turbines are known for the cleanest emissions with no soot and particulate matter, the startup is into the manufacturing of, micro gas turbine generator which is capable of generating the power 100kW.
From Idea framing to Fundraising: Partnering with leading business Union
The term power generation is understood in the broad aspect, certainly as a combination of fuel and lubrication systems, starting device control and testing system, air delivery and cleaning system, cooling system, exhaust gas devices system, etc.
For making a concept of power generation using gas turbines to a complete solution envisioning the automotive sustainability, the startup entered into fundraising, to get acquisition from the various investing players in the market. As a consequence, it has undergone the share subscription agreement with the Tube Investment of India Ltd, Murugappa’s group of Engineering Company.
Giving insights into how the indigenous gas turbine manufacturer gets funded from TII, Rohit, the undergraduate turned technopreneur remarks, “We, throughout the pandemic endeavored to procure the potential investment to make our gas turbine market-ready, and luckily get acquisition from such a leading business house, which is looking for diverse investment opportunities in the electrification of heavy automotive space.”
Rohit cites further, “From the operational and strategic aspects, the seed investment is a long play, which is pointing to the TII’s interest in entering the electrification space. And, with the expertise of TII at such a level helps scale the manufacturing.”
The investment is for the completion of around 30% of Aerostrovilos’s product, after which, the firm will further forge to raise the fund from the top investors in the market. The company is currently into the pitching of a Minimum Viable product testing with the truck OEMs, which will be a part of initial trials for 6 months, subsequent will be the product enhancement of the product through rigorous testing, from the automotive perspectives.
Into the Heavy-duties particularly
Although the truck cargo of India is responsible for the transportation of 65% of payloads, yet from the modern trends, it is evident that many of the global leaders in heavy automobiles are targeting more specifically the fuel cell vehicle.
At such a time when even electric vehicles have not been flourished on Indian roads, certainly, the fuel cell vehicle will take more time and thus, fuel cell trucks are far away. This gap, when it comes to the Indian Transportation industry widens up, as the EVs are themselves in the infant stage.
Citing about the passion for distinctly fueling the heavy trucks on Indian roads with the micro-gas turbines, Rohit said, “We are particularly into the development of our product and making it compliant with the trucking applications. Particularly due to the fact the fuel trucks, while considering the Indian scenario are nearly half-a-century way.” The overall idea is with the fuel flexibility, the firm is going to come up with zero emissions that can make sense in all the business cases.
Despite being blended with the major contribution in transportation, Trucks and heavy automobiles account for 50 % of the pollution due to transportation. “The primary challenge is to make the trucks with nullified emission of carbon. And, for that, we are building this turbine technology is reduce the emission from today itself,” Rohit remarks on the sustainable goal behind the sustainable gas turbine.
Facilitating transition: Overpowering Challenge
Scaling up the infrastructure, in terms of technology adoption is of paramount importance in manufacturing. The biggest hindrance, for the evolving manufacturing enthusiasts, is to get the right infrastructure, to buy or adopt any solutions. With the rise of the questions like whether to put the infrastructure or to start selling, these challenges go more significant. Investment too takes a long time to get into the desired pace.
Remarking on the features of Aerostrovilos’s product while facing the challenges, Rohit said, “In our system, if we choose to start with diesel today, we can reduce emission right from the first day, making our system adaptable to the particular change. Heading away to the development of LNG station in India will be aided by the fact that we can have such zero-emission trucks running on diesel in India.”
The fuel cell scenario, all over the world is such that being tough to afford from both the infrastructure point of view, the cost of the fuel cell, too is skyrocketing.
“If the hydrogen, in future becomes affordable economically, there will be a need of transitioning from the diesel to hydrogen-based automobile via fuel flexibility, and that is all how we are helping the automobiles to adapt the transition from today’s to the future’s fuel,” concludes Rohit throwing light on the Aerostrovilos’s contribution in the automobile sector.
