Tag Archives: energy

Mine Kafon: Innovative Wind-Powered Minesweeper

Designer and Inventor, Massoud Hassani poses with his landmine remover, Mine Kafon in the back.

No doubt, you’ve probably heard about Mine Kafon, a beautiful wind-powered landmine remover that’s been designed by Massoud Hassani. I like that it is being designed by expat Afghanis who are planning to deploy the technology in their home country soon. And I’ve really appreciated how smart they’ve been in creating awareness of their project by using all the social media tools available. Although debatable in terms of their efficacy, their openness has allowed input from different experts, and hopefully will help to create a more robust product. Not to mention all the PR they have gotten as a result.

Interested in being involved?? Check out their kickstarter project here.

 

 

Innovation in Sanitation: Waste Enterprisers

 

WE Founder, Ashley Murray has a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley

A small group of poo-advocates have parked themselves in Accra, Ghana and creating an eco-energy business, transforming sewage into precious fuel.

 

Called the Waste-Enterprisers, their business model works as follows:

Inspired by the widespread use of sewage sludge as a fuel for cement plants, we’re developing a business around processing fecal sludge as a fuel for industrial boilers and kilns. Through our work with the FaME consortium in Ghana, Senegal and Uganda, we’ve found that the solids portion of fecal sludge has an energy value similar to coal.

Our business will harness that energy by processing, branding and marketing fecal sludge as a clean, renewable fuel to industries.

Here’s the best embeddable video I could find of theirs that showcased their business model:

Oh, and bTW, they are hiring. See here for more details (couldn’t find anything on their website, but heard about this from a friend). Follow them on twitter @WEnterprisers