Latest update December 23rd, 2024 3:40 AM
Guyana triumphs at Sagicor Visionaries Challenge competition
With its rice husk particle board project, the Region Two Abram Zuil Secondary was able to secure victory for Guyana at the regional phase of the Sagicor Visionaries Challenge competition.
The competition in June saw Guyana competing against seven other countries – Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago and Tampa (Hillsborough County, U.S.A.). Queen’s College, Barbados came in second position with their project – “The Green Way To Get Styrofoam Away”. This project was inspired by the Styrofoam containers generated during lunch and how to not only get rid of them, but gain something else from the product. Using a lime juice concentrate, the students dissolved the containers into a reusable glue. The Bishop Martin Secondary School, Belize, placed third with their project – the use and benefits found in “Chaya”, a plant which has many healing components and nutrients.
Guyana’s project was judged through a video conference on June 25, 2015, in the conference room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The students were allowed a four-minute presentation and communicated with judges in Barbados. The judges were selected from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus and the Caribbean Examinations Council, through the Caribbean Science Foundation.
‘Sir’ Jerome Rajpersaud and students of Abram Zuil Secondary after winning the national competition last year.
As first place winner in the regional competition Abram Zuil has won US$5,000 to improve its science programme.
The rice husk project was in fact the national winning project selected from over 63 entries. Guyana had hosted the largest national fair in the Region, with the most entries.
While globally there are several uses for rice husk, the project team decided to focus on its use for the manufacture of rice husk particle board as a substitute for wood. Wood is commercially used in the construction industry which has resulted in deforestation in many parts of the world.
While Guyana enjoys forest cover of over 80 per cent, the loss of forests globally has resulted in the reduced absorption of carbon dioxide which has led to enhanced greenhouse effect. The project is one that looked at a two-fold solution, by using an agricultural waste product from the rice industry – rice husk as a substitute for wood and reducing the dependency on the forest for wood.
Deputy Head and Chemistry Teacher of Abram Zuil, Jerome Rajpersaud, had told this publication that the idea for the project was crystallised during an exercise to clean a fowl pen. The flooring of the pen, according to him, had a spread of paddy husk that overtime became solid and appeared ready to be made into wood.
Of course his scientific instincts got the better of him and before long he was sharing the idea with his students of Form Five Science.
“We did our research; we experimented on it and that’s how we came up with this project,” an elated Rajpersaud said.
The project is therefore a process whereby paddy husk is taken from a solar dryer and placed into a mill where it is ground into smaller pieces. These are then taken by a conveyor belt into a mixing drum where the pieces of husk are mixed for about 10 minutes with an aliphatic resin. After this, the content of the drum is transferred onto another conveyor belt on which there is a mould which forms the mixed substance before it is transferred into a hot and cold hydraulic press and then into a refinery where the edges are trimmed.
“It is then ready for the market,” explained Rajpersaud, as he spoke of the possible use of the finished products.
This product, he disclosed, can be used for the purpose of making ceiling panels, roofing, furniture, cupboard and pretty much anything that wood products can be used for.
Pic name winning school
Caption: ‘Sir’ Jerome Rajpersaud and students of Abram Zuil Secondary after winning the national competition last year.
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