"HWB could become the forerunner in Hydrogen (future energy) economics as it can handle large quantity of hydrogen," Banerjee said while addressing the 17th Heavy Water Day here.

BARC is doing advanced reseach in getting hydgrogen from water as hydrogen is going to be the future energy source for automobiles, Banerjee said.

The core-competence of the HWB by handling the production of heavy water for more than three decades, "it would be difficult for it to handly hydrogen economics," he said.

Speaking on the strengths of HWB, Banerjee said the Board is extremely good in separation sciences, catalysis, high temperature science, energy economics and accounting, handling of explosives and construction activities.

HWB has made a remarkable contribution in reducing the power consumption in the production of heavy water by 33 per cent and working on further reduction or energy economics, he said.

Efforts are being made to use heavy water in the cold chain process of Oral Polio vaccine (OPV) by HWB in order to prolong the shelf life of the vaccine, Banerjee said.