Class 8-E

To: Mrs. Harleen Singh

Group members: Tanay Gopal (L),

Jaskaran Singh, Gurnehmat Kaur Dhindsa,

Anshnoor Kaur, Sehaj Singh

Index:

INTERNATIONAL INNOVATIONS:

Bioplastic from banana peels

Pencil printer

Biodiesel made from sugar catalyst

INDIAN INNOVATIONS:

Plastic cotton for mattresses and bricks

Halodu: Instrument for weeding crops in mountains

Bio-Plastic from

Banana Peels

What comes to your mind when you think about discarded banana peels? Definitely not making plastic out of it! but ElifBilgin, 16, of Istanbul, Turkey made this task, which sounds impossible, true. She is the winner of the 2013 $50,000 Science in Action award, part of the third annual Google Science Fair. Bilgin spent two years toiling away on her project.

The ingredients to make Bilgin’s plastic are relatively benign. As she wrote in her entry materials, “it is possible to say that one could do it at home.” In her research, she learned that starch and cellulose are used elsewhere in the bioplasticindustry (such as from the skin of mangoes) and made the leap that banana peels might be suitable feedstock sources as well. The young scientist says that the banana

bioplastic could be used for the electrical insulation of

cables.

Elif Bilgin : in the Google science fair and in her kitchen making bio plastic out of

banana peels

Pencil Printer

What do you do when you use your pencil completely and the pencil

stubs are left. You can't join them and make a new long one. No

worries, Hoyoung Lee has another alternative, how about using them to

print on paper. Yes, like a printer that uses pencil to print your

documents. How about a portable desktop printer that prints out pages

you can erase? Beyond being a great, green and cheap alternative to

buying endless colored ink cartridges, the prints themselves have a

hand-made feel that only comes from that traditional graphite we all

associate with hand-written letters and memos. There is also a

section of eraser dust, making this quite possibly the only printer idea designed to not only produce text or images on paper, but to even allow you to ‘delete’ what you have done as needed!

Version two this ingenious idea by

designer Hoyoung Lee is a bit more

streamlined and portable, but boils

down to the same simple

black/gray-on-white process. This

tube-shaped design alternate plays

on the aesthetic of a rolled piece of

paper – and fits inside a portfolio

tube just like a set of drawings or

blueprints would.You know how it becomes more and

more painful to write and stubs grow

ever smaller. Instead of worrying

away at (or about) the point or

trashing it prematurely, simply toss

the leftover nub into the printer or

splice it with another and move on.

The 2nd version of pencil printer

Biodiesel made with

sugar catalyst

Michikazu Hara of Tokyo University came up with

the production of diesel from vegetable oil. The

production of diesel from vegetable oil calls for an

efficient solid catalyst to make the process fully

ecologically friendly . He described the preparation

of such a catalyst from common ,inexpensive sugars

. This high performance-catalyst ,which consists of

stable sulphonated amorphous carbon , is reclyable

and its activity markedly exceeds that of other

solid acid catalysts tested for ‘biodiesel’

production.

Prof. Michikazu Hara

Plastic Cotton for

Mattresses and Bricks

Residents of Anandwan travel to nearby villages to collect plastic bags

and other re-usable trash. These are washed, sanitized and sorted.

Thereafter they are shredded to a cotton like material to form what is

known as ‘Plastic Cotton’ to fill into mattresses and pillows. The

shredded plastic is also mixed in cement, sand and mud to prepare

stabilized mud bricks. This method imparts adequate compressive

strength to bricks without firing, thus eliminating the use of fuel.

Such reinforced bricks are used to construct Nubian vaults to form

house roofs, thereby saving money greatly on the use of cement and

steel. These have also been deployed in the construction of biogas

plants.

Anandwan recycles medical waste and reduces the impact on the

environment. Saline bottles become Christmas trees, with little

ornaments hanging from them. Intricate works of art are created from

empty sachets. Elsewhere in the world these sachets only add to the

rubbish in the landfills. But at Anandwan they are used as raw

materials for art!

Women making mattresses out of plastic cotton

in the village of Anandwan

Halodu: Instrument for

weeding crops in

mountains

The slopes of mountains and sporadic land pattern of

‘Himachal Pradesh’ (a hilly state in India)

Make it difficult for farmers to employ tractors for sowing

or weeding on a large scale. Rajkumar, a resident of a

remote village(Dalchera) in Hamirpur district of Himachal

Pradesh was another victim of these natural impediments

forcing him to try different innovations against human

limitations against nature. Using a second hand wheel and

its fork, from the wreck of his bicycle, Rajkumar invented

a curiously ingenious tool for weeding his fields. The

manually operated tool for weeding, named ‘Halodu’, has

ushered in a revolution in lives of farmers in the hilly

region.

‘Halodu’ has established itself as a cost effective,

innovative and absolutely pollution free technology for

farmers in the hills

‘Halodu’ proved to be a very effective tool for kitchen

gardening in the hills. The tool has also come very

effectively to aid overcome difficulty for farmers in wake

of deteriorating practice of maintaining bullocks in the

hilly areas. The people living in those areas can’t afford

tractors. Therefore, this cheap instrument is very helpful

Halodu Weeder

How are Indian innovations

different from

international innovations?

People in India do not have that much funds to buy machines or to create

electronic goods for their use like in other developed countries like USA.

An Indian innovation is an idea that erupts from solving day-to-day problems.

[the term ‘jugaad’ is used for these things] Whereas in the western countries

may be an experimental or scientific recreation.

Indian innovations are mostly cost-effective or eco-friendly solutions as

compared to their western counterparts.

Indians have to deal with limited resources whereas the western countries do

not have to deal with that.

Generally Indian innovations are in the remote areas by the local people who

mostly try to recycle products for their daily use.

Methods involved in Indian innovations are crude and mostly involves making

the ‘Best Out of Waste’.

Indian innovations are mostly on a low scale whereas western innovations are

large scale.

Bibliography:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/at-scientific-

american/2013/06/27/science-in-action-winner-for-2013-elif-bilgin/

www.nature.com

http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/02/04/printing-with-a-pencil-stub/

http://dornob.com/get-the-lead-out-cartridge-free-erasable-pencil-

printer/#axzz39JPlWtac

http://www.anandwan.in/spectrum-of-work/eco-friendly-innovations.html

https://ec.europa.eu/research/events/eib/ic2014/speaker.cfm?id=10

http://www.ecoideaz.com/innovative-green-ideas/jugaad-innovations-indian-

farmers