Anela Arifi: Chicken Feathers to Hydrogen, Google 2015

Biography

The project

EdTech Magazine's finalist list, published on 11 August 2015, gives the entry under both names: Anela Arifi and Ilda Ismaili, Bosnia-Herzegovina, production of hydrogen storage material and biodiesel from chicken feathers and fat. It was one of only two team entries on a list otherwise dominated by individuals, alongside a Taiwanese pair working on fuel impurity detection.

The idea starts from a waste stream. Poultry processing produces feathers by the tonne, and they are mostly keratin, a protein rich in carbon and, after carbonisation, capable of forming a porous structure. Porous carbon is the standard substrate for adsorbing hydrogen at moderate pressure, which is one of the enduring obstacles to hydrogen as a fuel: the gas is easy to make and hard to store. The fat, meanwhile, is a fatty-acid feedstock of the kind biodiesel production has used for decades.

Why waste chemistry attracts prizes

The appeal of this class of project to competition judges is that it addresses two problems with one input. A slaughterhouse pays to dispose of feathers and rendered fat; an energy system pays for storage media and fuel. Any chemistry that converts a disposal cost into a saleable product is economically self-reinforcing in a way that most green technologies are not.

It is also chemistry that can be done at school scale. Carbonising keratin and transesterifying fat into biodiesel require heat, reagents and care rather than a national laboratory, which is why similar projects recur at science fairs worldwide. The distinguishing work is in the measurement: how much hydrogen the resulting carbon actually holds, and at what pressure, is the number that separates a demonstration from a result.

A small country in a global final

The 2015 finalist list ran across at least ten countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Taiwan, France, Russia, Lithuania, India and Bosnia-Herzegovina. That spread was the point of the Google Science Fair, which was run online and therefore did not require a national selection apparatus, a travelling delegation or an affiliated regional fair.

For Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country of a few million people with a research budget to match, reaching a global final on equal terms with entrants from far larger science systems is the substantive achievement. The entry route removed the institutional barrier; what remained was the work.

How the fair worked

Entrants submitted projects online. Twenty were named global finalists in August and flown to California, where they presented to judges at Google's Mountain View headquarters on 21 September 2015. The grand prize was a $50,000 scholarship together with other prizes.

The 2015 cohort was heavy with medicine and environment: automated Alzheimer's diagnosis from Anika Cheerla and molecular work on the same disease from Krtin Nithiyanandam; portable blood analysis from Tanay Tandon; solar water extraction from Canada's Calvin Rieder; silk-based Ebola antibody storage from Olivia Hallisey. Against that field, a feathers-to-fuel entry from Bosnia held its place.

What is documented, and what is not

Firm: Arifi was named a 2015 Google Science Fair global finalist, jointly with Ilda Ismaili, for Bosnia and Herzegovina; the project produced hydrogen storage material and biodiesel from chicken feathers and fat; twenty finalists were selected worldwide and judged at Mountain View on 21 September 2015.

Not documented, in the source used here: her age, her school or town, the yields or storage capacities achieved, where the team placed in the final judging, and anything published about either student since 2015. The pairing with Ismaili is stated by the source and should be kept: this was a two-person project, and crediting one name alone would misdescribe it.

Achievement Timeline

Anela Arifi — every milestone on this page, in order.

2015

Enters the Google Science Fair with IlEnters the Google Science Fair with Ilda Ismaili, representing Bosnia and Herzegovina

11 Aug 2015

Named among the twenty global finalistNamed among the twenty global finalists; EdTech Magazine publishes the list

21 Sep 2015

The finalists present to judges at GooThe finalists present to judges at Google's Mountain View headquarters

Since 2015

No further published record found in tNo further published record found in the sources used for this page

Historical Comparison

Person	Country	Milestone	Age / Stat
Lauren Hodge	United States	Winning the 13-14 age category of the first Google Science Fair, in 2011…	Age 14
Sophie Healy-Thow	Ireland	Co-winning the Google Science Fair grand prize in 2014	Age 16
Anela Arifi	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2015 Google Science Fair global finalist	—
Viney Kumar	Australia	Winner, 13-14 category, Google Science Fair 2013	—
Calvin Rieder	Canada	2015 Google Science Fair global finalist	—

What is documented — and what is not

✓ Documented

Named a 2015 Google Science Fair global finalist for Bosnia and Herzegovina
The entry was a team project with Ilda Ismaili
Project: hydrogen storage material and biodiesel from chicken feathers and fat
Twenty finalists were judged at Google headquarters on 21 September 2015

? Unverified, disputed or wrong

Age, school and home town are not stated
No yields or storage capacities are published in the source
The team's placing on the day, and anything after 2015, is not documented

Questions people ask about Anela Arifi

What was Anela Arifi's project?

With Ilda Ismaili, the production of hydrogen storage material and biodiesel from chicken feathers and fat. It made them 2015 Google Science Fair global finalists.

Did she work alone?

No. The finalist listing credits the entry to Anela Arifi and Ilda Ismaili together, one of only two team entries among the twenty.

Why chicken feathers?

Feathers are mostly keratin, a protein that can be carbonised into a porous carbon of the kind used to adsorb hydrogen. The fat is a feedstock for biodiesel. Both are poultry-industry waste.