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Students were encouraged to develop several energy-production related projects due to the Costa Rican industry’s interest in investing in projects that will help them turn waste material into energy sources.
The student’s inventiveness is targeted to provide the country with a well founded energy option before a possible world energy crisis. Some of the projects presented before the media and attendees at the first “BioTica Encounter” included the growth of avocado in vitro, the production of ethanol from mucilage and the creation of energy from domestic wastewater treatment among others.
One of the prime materials used in fuel ethanol is the hydrated ethanol which students Karol Arias and Carlos Andres Castro were able to produce from coffee mucilage. Mucilage is a type of “natural sugar” produced by most plants and microorganisms.
The students’ goal is to obtain at least $500,000 in funding in order to be able to complete their research. They will need to build a plant that will have the capacity to process at least 3,500 cubic feet of mucilage per day for its commercial use.
Student Sebastian Reyes and Natalia Meza developed an alternative so that companies that have wastewater treatment plants can use these as a source to produce energy. The project is focused on adapting these treatments plants so that companies can take advantage of the energy it produces in a natural way. Reyes and Meza hope to collect at least $35,000 in order to formally start their business.
