Frustrated by the high number of single-use water bottles ending up in landfill, a chemical engineering student team's proposed solution has earned $50,000 in financial backing from a venture capitalist.
Reduce, Carbonize, Adsorb, a Capstone Design project, is the winner of this year’s Palihapitiya Venture Creation Fund Award sponsored by Chamath Palihapitiya (BASc '99, electrical engineering), founder and CEO of Social Capital.
Besides the money split equally among team members Rachel Blanchard, Nicole Howard, Kris Ma and Steven Vilcacundo Molina, the award includes mentorship, training, and advice from successful entrepreneurs.
The students described the technology they developed to eliminate single-use water bottles from landing in the trash as a novel and high-performing thermal decomposition process that converts polyethylene terephthalate (PET) products into an activated carbon product.
See Reducing water bottle waste for the complete story.