By Cassandra Khan
SCORES of exhibitors ‘stroth’ out their projects with the hope of winning the coveted $1M prize when the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport’s National Science Fair Finals and Expo opened at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Saturday.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, a teacher from Uitvlugt Secondary School and her team of six students explained their project which uses chicken feathers to clean up oil spills in the ocean.
The science teacher, Tresha Harrichand-Narine, said that in school, the students are taught about oil spills and were told that normally the oil would stick onto the feathers of birds, causing them to be heavy and sink.

The students then thought about reversing this negative for it to be positive on the environment whereby they use the poultry waste from industries that would normally dump feathers.
“The idea is about collecting wasted chicken feathers from poultry farms that would normally be dumped in waterways and the riverside which cause major pollution. So basically, we go to collect these feathers, we wash them, clean them, sterilise them, and stitch them into polyester pads and have them absorb oil in the event of an oil spill and it works,” Harrichand-Narine explained.

She added: “It’s very effective in comparison to coconut husk sponge and some other materials we would have compared them to.”
Another contesting team, from the Santa Rosa Secondary School, exhibited a solar-powered car.

Speaking for the team, Urban Alphonso, a student, explained that their solar-powered car is one of the solutions to global warming. He said it can solve community, national and global problems.
“It can solve a community problem by using solar [power] as an alternative to fossil fuel and also the high costs spent on fossil fuel. It can solve environmental problems by creating a friendly environment and even more you can solve a global problem by reducing global warming since no CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons) will be released into our atmosphere,” Alphonso explained.

The team from Bush Lot Secondary School showcased a model of a smokeless incinerator, also referred to as the eco-friendly incinerator.

SMOKELESS INCINERATOR
Shania Williams, who spoke on behalf of her team, said that their goal is to reduce air pollution, so the idea of a smokeless incinerator was created.
She explained that the smoke does not escape because water is put into a tank and calcium carbonate is added which traps the carbon dioxide.

Whenever the smoke rises, she said there is a sprinkler system where the water comes out and is reused. The pH level of the water is tested to ensure that it is safe enough to use on plants. Also, the ashes are tested as well to ensure they can be used in landfill and the heat from the incinerator is used to produce electricity.

“So, everything here is being reused so the incinerator won’t cause air pollution or land pollution,” Williams noted.
Representing the Quad sector, Niron John said that their project entails advancing rainfall to energy.

“We are bringing this innovative idea known as piezoelectric disks to harness the prevalent rainfall in Guyana,” he related.
Due to this and Guyana “going green”, the idea of piezoelectricity, which uses the downward force of rainfall to generate mechanical tension, which in turn charges the electrons inside and takes this and generates energy for the home came about.

“This can be used [simultaneously] with solar panels to make it more efficient because the piezoelectric discs are only for rainfall but the solar panels you can use for sun, so, you can alternate between them on any day given,” John explained.

He added: “So these panels are connected to the homes and then they are connected to some converters and depending on how you want your setup to be, it could be either linked to a plant or it could be linked to storage facilities in your home.”

When the batteries are full, John said, they can switch their operating current either to fully rely on the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) or, rely entirely on the piezoelectric disks, or even do a “half and half”, meaning they rely on the discs and GPL.

He explained that this subsidises energy costs because they would be getting free energy, alleviating the problem of fossil fuels and the dangerous carbon emissions that they bring.