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.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|
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.
How old is Anela Arifi?
No source consulted gives her age or birth year. The fair was open to teenagers.
Did they win the Google Science Fair?
The source names them as global finalists, not as grand prize winners. The grand prize was a $50,000 scholarship.
Where is Anela Arifi now?
No source consulted for this page records anything about her after 2015.
How many countries were represented in the 2015 final?
At least ten, among them the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Taiwan, France, Russia, Lithuania, India and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Anela’s story?
What raw material did the Bosnian project use?
Who was Anela Arifi's project partner?
What were the products?
Sources
- Google Spotlights 20 Student Science Fair Finalists — EdTech Magazine, 2015-08-11
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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