10 Days of Innovation

Ever since I was in eighth grade, I have always emphasized improving the environment and a sense of patriotism for improving this country's economy (because there are certain things we could do to make society better but for some reason do not). Therefore, in this blog post, I wanted to share the ideas and inventions that I came up with and hope would be implemented sometime in the future. If you are a new person, welcome to my first blog post and if you are the US government, please take notes.

Day 1

On day one, I learned that most of our electricity is used to power houses, buildings, streetlights, and other electrical equipment. We use gasoline from power plants, and using natural gas only increases our carbon footprint. Then I discovered that a species” of bacteria such as Shewanella bacteria are known to convert organic matter into electricity and thankfully in America, there is a lot of it, for reference the US wastes 120 billion pounds of food each year (Recycle Track Systems) and produces 128 billion liters in human feces (Meet Arnold). If we combine this food waste with these special bacteria, we could in theory power up to millions of homes in big cities such as New York City, and on top of that the by-product of the bacteria ingesting food waste is biogas which can be used like standard gas but has less carbon emissions.

On top of all that the US produces 40 million tons of plastic each year (Statista) and only 5% is considered recyclable (WBR), which explains why most of it ends up in landfills. However, the bacteria Ideonella sakaiensis can consume non-recyclable plastic and convert it into electricity. The by-products of plastic-ingesting bacteria ingesting plastic are terephthalic acid, a polymer used in packaging and textiles, and ethylene glycol, a compound used in antifreeze. Just think about getting rid of organic waste and unnecessary plastic and reducing our carbon footprint as well as our landfills, on top of since organic waste and plastic are free or low-cost fuel sources it would also decrease the electric bills and on top of that decrease gas prices since there is more supply of gas in other industries such as the car industry or chemical plants. Using plastic as a fuel source would encourage recycling, as people would see that more plastic recycling could lower electricity costs.

To implement this process, the Department of Energy must submit an act to Congress, which must then approve it. For this to work, the US government must satisfy private companies. To do this the US government would pay for the infrastructure for those organic waste electricity plants and the plastic waste electricity plants by taking money from the money from unnecessary programs such as public broadcasting networks and The Public Health Service Commission Corps and investing that into this infrastructure that way the companies themselves would not have to pay for it themselves.

After the infrastructure is in place the government would then regulate the companies so that they are using organic waste and not gasoline by getting rid of the carbon tax (which was a tax designed to reduce the carbon footprint of companies that use natural gases) of electric companies which would give a further incentive for electric companies to go green and thus make the electric companies happy while also making environmental reformers satisfied.

Day 2

The next day I figured out that there was a flaw in this system, although this system would work, and electricity would be able to power homes using the organic waste, it would most likely be sent to power plants to power big or medium-sized cities such as New York City or Rochester however the small cities such as those in the southwest would not be able to produce enough food waste to generate the required amount of electricity to power all of the infrastructure in those cities.

Thankfully, people have developed biohybrid buildings that use algae to generate electricity. When sunlight hits the glass panes of algae, the algae perform photosynthesis. This photosynthesis not only purifies the air around the building, enabling more fresh oxygen but also powers the building since algae produces bits of energy through photosynthesis that can be harnessed for electricity. Another plus is that the mature algae can be sold for fertilizer, providing more supply for the fertilizer businesses.

This can be implemented by the same method as mentioned on day one just with different infrastructure but the same incentives such as no carbon tax. Since mature algae can be sold for fertilizer, power plant companies can continuously sell algae repeatedly and maintain a steady revenue stream, algae are easy to grow so they are cheap to purchase, thus creating an insane demand for those algae by numerous household and company buildings. Plus, the algae can be sold for fertilizer which could provide some pocket change for those who own those biohybrid buildings and thus increase incomes for many homeowners.

Day 3

After reading an article at one point about how desert regions receive water (World Bank Blogs), I learned that many desert regions have desalination plants to convert salt water into fresh water, however, the residue, salt, is then dumped into the oceans, which leads to dead zones where ocean life cannot live in.

However, scientists have discovered a species of bacteria called Halobacterium that can convert salt into electricity. This could protect the oceans from these dead zones while also providing the cities in the Middle East with cheap electricity.

The way this can work is that the governments of those specific countries that get their water from the seas can connect the desalination plants directly to salt silos that contain the halo bacteria and thus create electricity. Since some desalination plants are privately owned they can sell the salt for a low price and make some extra money off of the salt, on top of that since salt is a relatively cheap resource that would mean that the electricity bills of those countries would decrease and on less oil being used for electricity, meaning that oil prices would go down and reduce the carbon footprint of the world, thus make the world’s environment and economy much better than it already is.

Day 4

One main issue that the world is facing is plastic pollution, especially in America where about 1.15 to 2.41 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year through American rivers such as the Mississippi (National Renewable Energy Laboratory), which many NGOs are trying to solve, however, there is one specific NGO called Ocean Cleanup which has machines that take plastic out of water bodies and has the plastic recycled.

So if the government was trying to demote plastic pollution while also improving the economy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should encourage the NGO to rent out these machines to companies that use plastic such as soda companies so that the companies can take out the plastic from the rivers and use them in their products and the plastic that cannot be recycled can just be incinerated or if there are plastic power plants or plants that use non-recyclable plastic, then the nonrecyclable plastic can be sold for a low price and receive added revenue.

However, for plastic that can be recycled, I am aware that recycled plastic is more expensive than manufacturing plastic but the agency can give the companies tax cuts if they use recycled plastic instead of manufacturing new plastic that way companies do not have to worry about taxation which would decrease products coming from those companies additionally the revenue generated from leasing these plastic collecting machines could help out the Ocean Cleanup and allow for more money to be invested in cleaning plastic in other places in the world.

Day 5

There are companies such as Elecosy, a Belgian company that converts elephant and rhino dung into paper, or AIR-INK, an Indian company that converts air pollution into usable ink. Some companies are converting waste into everyday products. However, those companies are not well known because they do not have a large enough customer base to support them.

In that case, the Environmental Agency of America could invest in those companies to influence them to sell their methods to American companies and to provide further incentives for US companies to follow environmentally friendly ways, the agency could decrease taxes or provide subsidiaries if the companies follow suit thus improving the environment and improving company profits.

Day 6

When I was reading the STAAR test for grade 7, I read a passage about a man in Africa who lived in Burkina Faso, a country facing desertification, and what he did to combat it was digging holes in the ground, filling them with compost, adding tree saplings, and once it rained the holes collected that moisture from the water and combined from the nutrients from the compost it caused the trees to grow and eventually through this process Burkina Faso was becoming a lush rainforest and arable land was restored in the lands.

This method called Zia farming is an ancient technique used in dry regions of Africa. In America, especially the states of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona because of desertification, the use of Zai farming could save the farming economies of those states and increase crop yields in those regions.

To attain money for this project, the Environmental Agency can appeal to the UN through agencies such as the United Nations Environment Programme which would provide money to fund this project and perform Zai farming in the southwest. Since Zai farming requires water for the plants to grow the state government can perform cloud seeding to speed up the process and get the crops to grow in these dry regions, thus saving the US farming economy and the American environment.

Day 7

In America freight trains are the backbone of the US economy worth 80 billion dollars (U.S. Department of Transportation). Unfortunately, these trains also produced a whopping 170 million tonnes of CO2 in 2020 alone (MIT Climate Portal) which is the equivalent of 36 million civilian cars emitted. However, if America replaces our gas-powered freight trains with some high-speed freight trains it would drastically decrease gas emissions, promote efficiency in transportation, and reduce transportation costs.

The US Department of Transportation can receive money from the UN environmental agencies and replace our rail lines with those designated for high speed while also developing high-speed freight trains to replace conventional trains. This results in lower product prices while also reducing the carbon footprint. Additionally, reduced gas consumption leads to lower gas prices due to decreased demand, further reducing transportation costs.

Day 8

America has very extensive roads and roads need maintenance, more specifically 206 billion dollars from federal and state governments (Urban Institute), and worst of all it only contributes to carbon emissions. An inventor named Henk Jonkers developed a special type of concrete called bio concrete that contains specialized bacteria that produce limestone when given water. Concrete often wears down because any water that seeps in cracks resulting from the already weakened concrete. With bio concrete, the bacteria get rejuvenated from the water, and these specific bacteria create limestone that seals the cracks.

So, instead of spending the money on standard concrete, the states and the federal government can invest the money they use to repair roads with bio concrete instead of standard concrete which would be a permanent solution to the never-ending problem of road repair and reduce the carbon emission in America, even though bioconcrete cost twice as much as standard concrete if the governments replace the asphalt on the roads with bioconcrete in an orderly manner, eventually, American highways and roads would be solely made of bioconcrete that could repair and maintain itself. The additional money not used to fix roads could be used for other projects such as cancer research or NASA.

Day 9

In America, we have more than 450,000 brownfields (US Environmental Protection Agency). Brownfields are previously developed lands that are currently unused. These regions frequently experience contamination, posing risks to the environment and local inhabitants. I also noticed a trend that often occurs with brownfields: they are always situated in low-income places. Since America is also struggling with food insecurity with 47 million people in the US alone dealing with it (Feeding America). I figured that the brownfields could be replaced with industrial-sized greenhouses that could provide more food for the country and increase job opportunities for those who live near the brownfields as these greenhouses have replaced them.

Then the people living in those low-income areas can get the necessary training for the jobs they wish to have at the greenhouses. For ownership, the greenhouses can be owned by major companies such as Cargill or Perdue Farms to decide what to do with the excess food that is not being used to feed the people who are working or living near the greenhouses, which would most likely be to sell the food to other places such as restaurants and other places in the world.

For this to happen the Department of Agriculture and Department of Treasury would need to organize tax money or use methods as mentioned earlier to give money to state governments to convert these brownfields into greenhouses and thus provide much prosperity amongst the low-income people and reduce food insecurity

Day 10

For the final day, I developed a website with a friend named Satwik Patro, which is designed to find recipes for those who have dietary diseases such as diabetes. All you have to do is click what disease you have, the type of cuisine you want such as Indian, the meal type like lunch, click the generate recipes button then the ai will find recipes from the web that would follow what the user inputted, which would allow the person to follow those recipes and get food that they desire while also not sacrificing on their health.

Here is the link:

https://recipe-rec.vercel.app/

At the end of these ten days, honestly, I did not learn much from this. I mean sure I learned about a couple of new bacteria and different types of new technology such as bioconcrete. Still, all in all, I mainly had thought about these ideas since I was in eighth grade and to be fair most of the things I come up with are a result of coming across articles or videos on YouTube. To be an inventor, one does not have to be a super genius and have good genetics. Being an inventor is really all about curiosity and following a passion. Most of the things I mentioned in my blog involved a combination of economics and environmental awareness since both would benefit America. If I have one piece of advice to anyone who wants to invent something or improve the world it would be to follow your passion and keep on imagining things whenever possible because eventually, you will come up with something that could change the world.

Citations:

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Motis, Tim, et al. “Zai Pit System.” ECHOcommunity, 2013, www.echocommunity.org/en/resources/3bbc0e7d-5730-4af1-901d-3b3c68c46c48.

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Simos, Niko, and Isabelle Dom. “The Case for Investing in Greenhouses in the US.” AGRITECTURE, 4 Feb. 2024, www.agritecture.com/blog/the-case-for-investing-in-greenhouses-in-the-united-states.

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