'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
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
WATCH LIVE As GC Strategies partner is admonished by MPs, RCMP confirms search warrant executed
The RCMP confirmed Wednesday it had executed a search warrant at an address registered to GC Strategies. This development comes as MPs are enacting an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power, summoning one of its contractors to appear before the House of Commons to be admonished publicly for failing to answer questions related to the ArriveCan app.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Earthquake jolts southern Japan
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 hit southern Japan late on Wednesday, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, without issuing a tsunami warning.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
Disappointment widespread over budget's proposed $200-month disability benefit funding
Advocacy groups across Canada are expressing widespread disappointment about the amount of funding earmarked in the 2024 federal budget for the long-awaited Canada Disability Benefit.
Former Sask. massage therapist who sexually assaulted clients has day parole revoked
A former massage therapist who pleaded guilty to a string of sexual assaults has had his day parole revoked.