Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

According to WHO, about 4.2 million people die annually from indoor pollution. Most of these people do not have access to clean energy and hence have to use biomass fuels such as Charcoal and firewood. Regular biomass energy emits 230 grams of CO2 equivalent per kWh (gCO2 per KWh), the fourth-highest. 
Secondly, Today, we produce about 300 million tons of plastic each year across the globe. Rivers carry plastic waste from deep inland to the sea, making them major contributors to ocean pollution. 
Having faced first-hand the problem of indoor pollution while growing up in Soweto Village, I decided to innovate. In our company, we convert plastic waste into clean energy. 
In the innovation, we have designed and fabricated equipment which includes; a reactor, a harvester, 2 coolers, and a separator cylinder. Clean cooking is harvested and compressed into gas cylinders.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Replaces/avoids GHGs (e.g., projects that replace sources of GHGs, such as the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, transport, or other energy uses), Reduces GHGs (e.g., projects that reduce sources of GHGs, such as through efficiency or other changes in consumption)

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Our innovation is a plastic waste-to-clean cooking gas solution dubbed Mega Gas . We aggregate and collect plastic waste from households and landfills then convert it into a clean cooking gas through a patented thermal cracking process and resell it back to the community using a distribution network of women entrepreneurs. Our customers access the gas by purchasing our branded canisters or by using our fully kitted community kitchens at a fee. Mega Gas targets low-income households earning less than $2 PPP providing them with an alternative cooking fuel that is safe, affordable, accessible, and environmentally friendly. Compared to LPG, a 6kg canister of Mega Gas is 50% cheaper and has a 25% higher calorific value. Compared to traditional sources of fuel like biomass, Mega Gas is cleaner posing no hazard of indoor pollution. Moreover, our users can pay on-demand ($0.2/hr) to access a fully kitted community kitchen with stoves for cooking thereby providing choice and reducing upfront costs related to purchasing gas canisters. Mega Gas thus improves the health outcomes of low-income households, especially women and children, saves them money, and removes dangerous pollutants from the environment namely plastics. Our typical end user is an 18-40-year-old woman, mostly a stay-at-home mom, with a high school level education living in a two-roomed house in a low-income area with an average occupancy of 5 people and working in the informal sector mostly operating small grocery kiosks. They earn an average of $2-$3 a day.

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