Siliguri, May 7: A new alternative to diesel has been invented in a makeshift laboratory in Jalpaiguri.

Sisir Roychoudhury, a mechanical engineer, and his two sons Bhaskar and Dibakar, both graduates with honours in science subjects, have been working on the project for eight years. Almost half the time was spent in the pursuit of recognition of their invention and a patent for it.

Now, armed with both, they are open to offers from oil companies for large-scale production and sale of the fuel, VDEL.

The alternative fuel, which uses bio-chemicals to make hydrocarbon chains compatible with diesel combustion engines, is cheaper, less polluting, gives better mileage and can be easily stored in dispensable outlets (see chart).

“After petrol, diesel, bio-diesel, jet fuel, power alcohol and gas, ours is the seventh usable public transport fuel,” said Sisir at a news meet today. “We have the worldwide rights to sell and produce the fuel.”

The rights, for which the inventors had applied in September 2003, came after a long wait. The International Searching Authority of Austria, which recommends an invention for worldwide recognition, approved VDEL for novelty (it is not known to exist anywhere in the world), inventive step (it does not exist naturally), and industrial applicability (it can be produced for social utilisation) on December 20, 2004.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation approved the product soon after, even publishing an article on it in its International Gazette on March 24, 2005. Finally, the Patent Office of the Government of India has issued patent rights to the trio on March 2, 2007 for a period of 20 years.

“We had to keep the invention under wraps till we got the patent,” said Sisir. “Now, we are looking to get it peer-reviewed,” the 57-year-old employee of Life insurance Corporation of India added.

Asked about how it all started, Bhaskar, a physics honours graduate, said: “We were aware of the problems related to availability of fuel in our country. All three of us used to discuss the issue and finally decided to do something about it.”

A room on the first floor of their house at Ukilpara in Jalpaiguri was soon turned into a laboratory, recalled Dibakar who has done his honours in bio-science. It was 1999 when the trio began their experiments.

“We continued to work for almost four-and-a-half years before we succeeded in making VDEL,” Sisir said.

The inventors are now looking for proposals from the public and/or private sectors to produce and sell VDEL on a commercial basis. “We want the government and business houses to utilise our invention, which can bring a sea change in the fuel sector of the country.”