15 Year Old Texas Teenager Invents Algae-Powered Energy System
Filed Under: Environmental News on July 3, 2009
This kid is a genius. He’s a high school student named Javier Fernandez-Han, he’s 15, and his Versatile System is a full-featured, algae-powered energy system that combines several existing technologies together. The result is a system that treats waste, produces methane, bio-oil, food for humans and livestock, sequesters greenhouse gases, and gives off oxygen. He’s calling it the VERSATILE System, now in “version 2.”
The project won the 2009 Invent Your World Challenge, earning Javier a $20,000 scholarship. He’s also going to MIT later this year to participate in their global youth summit on climate change.
The VERSATILE System is modular, but each piece fits with the next so make a whole system, so it can be used in whole or in parts. Han built the plan with the needs of developing countries and rural areas in mind. It is entirely self-contained and most of its components are as well.
The components are:
- An anaerobic digester for sewage, food scraps, and compostibles.
- A bio-gas upgrader that turns gases from the digester into food for algae.
- Methane-burning stoves produce CO2 and a capturing device diverts that into the algae growth chambers.
- Algae bioreactors produce algae, needing only the seed algae, sunlight, and saltwater and the CO2 from #3.
- Energy from the methane burner also runs flush latrines and a hand pump that can be run by children or adults moves water and generates electricity.
Pretty dang awesome, Javier.
