In this penultimate episode of this year’s collection of conversations on deep tech in India, Rohit Grover and Pradeep Thangappan give us an update on the small gas turbine they’re developing at their IIT Madras incubated venture Aerostrovilos Energy.

Their first product will be a 100kW unit that will be compact enough to sit below the cabin of a truck, to generate enough electricity that will easily run the vehicle. The turbine, designed to burn any fuel – from diesel to hydrogen – will also see applications in the industrial genset market, which alone is a multi-billion-dollar opportunity, the two founders say.

In this conversation, they talk about how close they are to their first commercial product, interest from potential customers, and the challenges of building a deep science and engineering-based hardware product from India.