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Children showcase a Green India

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Abhigna
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KOLKATA, INDIA: Energy efficient chulhas (stoves), alternative fuel sources, refrigerators that run without electricity and green buildings -- young innovators at the Children's Science Congress showcased an environment-friendly India here.

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Aiming to explore, harness and conserve energy, a clutch of children from rural areas to the metros and armed with school level science knowledge showed the way to a better tomorrow at the event simultaneously held with the 100th Indian Science Congress.

With "Energy: Explore, Harness, Conserve" as the theme, the Children's Science Congress brought together 140 budding scientists from all the states to the city from Jan 4 to 6.

For 15-year-old Akhilesh Vaishnav and his team from a village in Chattisgarh, it was an opportunity to provide environmental friendly and cost effective energy alternatives to household appliances like the refrigerator.

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"It generates harmful emissions... So we came up with the concept of using the residue after wood is burnt as the substitute for electric power," Vaishnav told IANS.

Vaishnav's refrigerator makes use of water from the top and bottom to cool the contents.

Boys from Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh successfully engineered an indigenous chulha (stove) that incorporates basic principles of physics and saves time and fuel.

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"The improvised chulha designed by us works on the simple principle of reflection and conduction of heat. The design is such that the heat loss is minimal and the heat generated is focused on the very same spot where heat is needed for cooking," said Tagru Tatu of the Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya, Itanagar.

Down south, the calling card for the team from Kerala was to decrease the use of fossil fuel and focus on homemade biofuels.

"Decreasing the use of fossil fuels is the need of the hour. In India bio diesel is produced from Jatropha but it is not found in abundance. We used oils and some chemicals to get biodiesel, "said a member of the team from S.M.V.H.S.S., Kerala.

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The five-member group used basic lab chemicals like methanol and potassium hydroxide along with an oil to generate a biofuel and glycerine. After filtering the biofuel layer, it was further treated to obtain pure form of the fuel.

The children from Andaman and Nicobar Islands pitched in their concept of Green Buildings.

The Green Buildings channel solar power through photovoltaic cells and solar panels and use concepts like rain water harvesting and various environmental friendly construction materials like bamboo, Aanchal Tyagi, a 10th standard student of Navy Children School, Port Blair, told IANS.

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