HOW TOMATOES CAN PRODUCE ELECTRICITY?

Three 14yrs Kenyan girls’ from Oshwal Academy Nairobi, have made to the final list of 15 finalists for this year Google’s science fair for their innovation through their project titled “Can heat and tomatoes produce electricity?”

The team comprising of Himanshi Sehgal, Souparni Roy and Richa Nagda have been shortlisted for science in Action Awards, after judges evaluated thousands of projects submitted by students from more than 120 countries. The annual fair offers students between ages 13 and 18 across the globe to pursue their interest in science and technology.

Though the title of the project might shock one and how it can be achieved, the young Kenyan team say they have a point to prove and their project is real and are out to prove all skeptics wrong.

The trio’s project delves into how electricity can be created through the transformation of solar energy into steam. Himanshi, one of the group members explains that the idea was born after noticing that there is a lot of wasted energy, which is not being tapped and with the help of their teachers, they developed the idea and presented it to for the competition.

“We were just doing it for fun and did not expect to be in the international arena with such kind of an idea,” said Himanshi. “With just one tomato you can perform this simple, but noble task, which takes approximately 30 minutes,” explains Souparni Roy. She says that sunrays are tapped using a mirror then reflected using a copper metal, which is a good conductor of heat; this is then directed to a container containing water squeezed from a tomato.

Since water squeezed out from tomatoes boils faster at 60 degrees unlike water, which boils at 100 degrees, it takes a shorter time to produce energy, which then moves the turbines and electricity is produced. We noticed that a lot of light is wasted and decided to tap it.

They describe themselves as scientists in the making and see this achievement as a stepping stone as they aspire to do more discoveries and explore other possibilities in science related activities.

We wish the lovely  pupils all the best