'Earthshot' prize winner with Vancouver connection hopes to mitigate wildfire risk, change perceptions
Kevin Kung says the idea first surfaced when he was in Kenya nearly a decade ago.
The mechanical engineer, who grew up in Vancouver and, at the time, was studying at MIT, said he noticed that virgin wood in rural areas was being turned into cooking fuel.
And Kung knew there had to be a better way.
“When I was graduating, I realized that a lot of that technology, even though they are very state-of-the-art, it ends up sitting on the shelf,” Kung said.
Fast forward to 2020, and Kung and his co-founder were running a village-based pilot project in India, through a startup they had named Takachar.
“‘Taka’ in Swahili, which is spoken in Kenya, means ‘trash,’" Kung said. “So that name stuck.”
Over the years, they had built and rebuilt a portable chemical reactor, of sorts, refining the size, shape and design one piece at a time.
Stalks and stems, left over vegetation, and forest residues, which are collectively called biomass, go in one end.
And with heat (but no external energy), they together undergo a process that turns out a carbon rich product that can be further engineered as biofuel or fertilizer.
“Biomass is often very loose, wet and bulky,” Kung explained. “Which makes it very difficult and expensive to transport.”
The whole idea, Kung said, is for the equipment to be latched onto tractors or pickups, where it can be transported into hard-to-reach areas, including forests.
“Wildfires often are exacerbated because there’s a build up in loose vegetation in forests,” Kung said.
“Even after (forest) management operations, they’re too expensive to truck out,” he added.
On Sunday, Takachar became one of the inaugural winners of the Earthshot Prize, created by The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The foundation describes the prize as “the the most prestigious global environment prize in history, designed to incentivise change and help repair our planet over the next ten years.”
Takachar took home the top spot in the “Clean Our Air” category, which means Kung and his team will receive $1.7 million in grant money.
“That will definitely go toward scaling up our initial pilot, which right now involves 5,000 farmers (in India),” Kung said, adding that the company is already testing in California.
He also wants to build a research and development centre in Vancouver, and said the startup is actively looking for local partners in forestry and agriculture to demo the technology.
Beyond scaling up, Kung said he’s witnessed a paradigm shift among those who’ve seen the process first hand.
“They start seeing this almost as a commodity that they can trade,” Kung said.
“No longer (seeing) them as trash, but as something that has more potential to it.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
DEVELOPING Man sets self on fire outside New York court where Trump trial underway
A man set himself on fire on Friday outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump's historic hush-money trial was taking place as jury selection wrapped up, but officials said he did not appear to have been targeting Trump.
BREAKING Sask. father found guilty of withholding daughter to prevent her from getting COVID-19 vaccine
Michael Gordon Jackson, a Saskatchewan man accused of abducting his daughter to prevent her from getting a COVID-19 vaccine, has been found guilty for contravention of a custody order.
She set out to find a husband in a year. Then she matched with a guy on a dating app on the other side of the world
Scottish comedian Samantha Hannah was working on a comedy show about finding a husband when Toby Hunter came into her life. What happened next surprised them both.
Mandisa, Grammy award-winning 'American Idol' alum, dead at 47
Soulful gospel artist Mandisa, a Grammy-winning singer who got her start as a contestant on 'American Idol' in 2006, has died, according to a statement on her verified social media. She was 47.
'It could be catastrophic': Woman says natural supplement contained hidden painkiller drug
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Young people 'tortured' if stolen vehicle operations fail, Montreal police tell MPs
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
The Body Shop Canada explores sale as demand outpaces inventory: court filing
The Body Shop Canada is exploring a sale as it struggles to get its hands on enough inventory to keep up with "robust" sales after announcing it would file for creditor protection and close 33 stores.
Vicious attack on a dog ends with charges for northern Ont. suspect
Police in Sault Ste. Marie charged a 22-year-old man with animal cruelty following an attack on a dog Thursday morning.
On federal budget, Macklem says 'fiscal track has not changed significantly'
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says Canada's fiscal position has 'not changed significantly' following the release of the federal government's budget.