These Talented Indian Teens Impressed Google with Their Eco-Friendly Idea

These Talented Indian Teens Impressed Google with Their Eco-Friendly Idea
Image source: Google

Karnataka teenagers Aman KA and AU Nachiketh Kumar are one of the six winners at the Google Science Fair, 2019, held in Houston, US. The duo has successfully developed an eco-friendly and cost-effective solution called ‘Averrhoa Bilimbi - A Natural Coagulant for Rubber Latex’ for solidifying or coagulating rubber through ‘bimbli’ extract.

Coagulated rubber is exclusively used for making sheets. Formic acid is the main ingredient for coagulating rubber latex to make the sheets. However, these talented young boys experimented with the ‘bimbli ‘which is a natural and an eco-friendly replacement of formic acid.

16-year-old Nachiketh hails from Uppinangady, a small village in Karnataka and Aman comes from another village called Puttur, which is also in Karnataka.

The story behind the idea goes back to the time when the boys’ mother told them about their grandfather, who spent a large part of his life trying to find the alternatives for the acid. He was also in rubber business for four decades. To take the process forward, Aman and Nachiketh started experimenting with different, more natural ingredients to make rubber sheets.

Aman told a source about the whole process of extracting the juice of ‘bimbli’ (scientifically known as Averrhoa bilimbi.) The conversation went something like this-

“We extracted its (bimbli) juice and added 60 ml of it to a one-liter tray of rubber latex. We found that bimbli sped the process of coagulating rubber latex by 10 hours. While it usually takes formic acid close to 16 hours for the process, it took bimbli extract only six hours," he explained.

So, the process got faster and the sheets produced were of better quality than those produced with formic acid. Additionally, the use of bimbli juice reduced the use of chemicals such as para-nitrophenol, which adds colors to the rubber latex sheets. Being a natural ingredient, bimbli also non-toxic and require 40% less of its juice than that of formic acid. Bimbli requires approximately 60L of its juice in comparison to 100L of the acid. As the result, it brought the overall cost of the sheets as well.

Amongst the thousands of students that participated in the fair, 24 finalists were picked for the final round. Out of them, six participants were awarded for their creativity and ideas in various categories. Aman KA and AU Nachiketh Kumar won under the category of Google’s National Geographic Explorer Award. They won a Silver medal

The company released this statement on Twitter, “We saw impressive entries that used a variety of STEM disciplines-- from using AI to help detect disease in plants to finding new ways to diagnose heart disease.”

Other winners from the fair were an Ireland student who has come up with a technique to extract harmful micro plastics from waste water, which will help in saving the oceans, an Indonesian student whose aim is to come up with affordable ways to help people test their sugar level, and a Turkish student who uses tree vibrations to harness energy.