Global carmakers and others who fight a feverish technology battle to push hydrogen as affordable and clean fuel in their vehicles may soon have an Indian research team to thank. Scientists led by K. Vijayamohanan Pillai at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in Pune have tweaked a material that is at the heart of a hydrogen-based fuel cell in such a way that the electrochemical device is capable of delivering more power for the same set-up. Fuel cells are touted as the future of the energy industry as, unlike fossil fuels, it is non-polluting with its only by-product being water. Cheaper and better fuel cells may not only turn out to be an environment -friendly technology, but also an efficient engine of growth. Energy production from petroleum products or coal involves myriad steps such as heat extraction from fuel by burning it, conversion of that heat to mechanical energy, and transformation of that mechanical energy into electrical energy. In contrast, fuel cells operate by converting a fuel's chemical energy directly into electrical energy. Pillai, who heads the materials chemistry group at NCL, and his colleagues, had an innovative chemical strategy to make the fuel cell deliver more. While globally research teams are concentrating mainly on electrodes to enhance the efficiency of the fuel cell, the NCL group decided to focus on electrolyte