This High-Schooler is Harnessing Chemistry to Combat Pollution
An award-winning student inventor, Tarun Batchu has discovered an eco-friendly way to convert plastics into fuel.
Humans produce millions of tons of plastic waste every year, much of which ends up in the ocean, and very little of which is recycled. It is a global problem, and one that needs to be tackled. This was what Tarun Batchu — a sophomore at Liberty High School in Ohio — was thinking about when he began designing Trident, a device that converts plastics into biofuels.
This summer, Trident earned Batchu The Lemelson Foudation’s Community and Societal Benefit award at the prestigious National Invention Convention competition, sponsored by The Henry Ford.
To help people understand Trident, which is still in the prototype phase, Batchu likes to compare it with a washing machine. “It’s a primarily hardware device,” he says, “but with a software interface where you can select the settings.” It runs on a process called cold plasma pyrolysis, which involves capturing air at a cryogenic state to burn plastics and break them down into crude oil that can be used to make biodiesel and ethanol.
We spoke with Batchu about his path to invention, the value of STEM, and the importance of mentors.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you get into STEM and inventing?
When I was in Kindergarten and first grade we lived in an apartment, and our neighbor who lived across the hall from us was a mechanical engineer. She was friends with my mom and she used to help me with my early inventions. It’s great to have a mentor like that, especially at such a young age.
And my mom tried to expose me as much as possible to STEM and invention. She really had a passion for that and she wanted me to like it as well. I’m sure without my parents I wouldn’t have gone as far in STEM as I’ve gone.
You’ve participated in many competitions, including Invention Convention.
Yes, and most of the time I sign up for competitions independently, not through my school. I just hear about competitions and sign up and make a project and present.
I heard about Invention Convention in third grade, after we moved to the school district I’m in now. But my school doesn’t participate in competitions or have science fairs, so it’s all independent.
I did Invention Convention for nine years, and it took me seven years to make it to the state level. I started working on Trident when I was in eighth grade, but then I went to my district level. Then I qualified for states, and then nationals.
What exactly is pyrolysis? And how do you leverage it for Trident?
It’s a very old concept, from the 11th century. It’s the heating or burning of material at a very high temperature without oxygen.
When you burn plastic in the absence of oxygen and bring it to a really high temperature slowly with a catalyst — which is basically something that speeds up the process — the plastic reverts to a complex chemical stage, or petroleum compound, because plastics are made from petroleum, which is a type of crude oil product.
How does Trident work?
Trident offers a way to automate this process, and it increases the efficiency of this complex chemical procedure to a state that everyone can use. It uses something called a century chamber, which brings the air to a really cold temperature — essentially a cryogenic state — and uses that as a catalyst to speed up the process.
It’s different from any other pyrolysis product, because it doesn’t produce any emissions. And because it’s so compact — about the size of a large compost box — it has the highest efficiency out there, and is about a fifth of the cost of any other leading pyrolysis device.
What big questions were you asking during your invention process?
I think the biggest question was how do I make this more efficient? I wanted my device to be applicable to all, including people in developing countries and coastal countries, where plastics are an especially big problem.
And I realized that the less automated it is the less likely someone is to use it because it’s more laborious. That’s when I came up with my concept of the century chamber and that innovative procedure that I had provisionally patented.
The big question now is more about cost and accessibility. Even though Trident costs a fifth of any other device on the market, it’s still relatively expensive.
Do you have a long-term plan for taking Trident to market?
Right now I’m applying for a non-provisional patent, and then the next steps are applying for grants for funding, designing my product, and then trying to implement it in developing countries. Then I can get more feedback, see how much it costs, and who is willing to buy it.
What do you think is needed to get more kids to participate in competitions?
I think it’s important that we have STEM pushed out in addition to standard topics like history and English. STEM should be like another subject in school that’s offered and that could include competition.
I’m sure that if my school participated in competitions we would have ten more inventors at the very least. If we push out more things like Invention Convention or other STEM opportunities, there will be more student inventors, more students interested in STEM.
The initiative or opportunity should begin at school, because that’s a student’s second home.
What do you say to students who love STEM but don’t have access to it through school?
If a student is super interested in STEM and they have a huge passion for it, I tell them: Don’t find the opportunity — make the opportunity. Because I think where there’s a will, there’s a way.
All you have to do is go to the National Invention Convention website and apply from an independent standpoint, which is completely fine. I’ve seen multiple people who have won this way. You just have to make your own path for it.
What does it mean to you to have a mentor? How did you meet your mentor, and form that relationship?
I met him through my temple. He taught science and one time he told me that if I had any questions, I could call him. So when I was thinking about some ideas I called him and now we talk all the time about science. He’s now a senior at Ohio State University and he’s going into neurosurgery research.
He doesn’t give me advice or tell me what to do with my projects, but it’s more like, when I have a question, he helps by simplifying what steps I can take. To me a mentor is like a cornerstone or a pillar. If I didn’t have that pillar, I don’t think I’d be the same, because this stuff is hard.
What role has community played in your invention journey?
I think the biggest community that I have is with Invention Convention, which is an amazing environment for us to work in. I see people like me, which is huge for motivation as well as discipline. I know that other people are like me, striving like me to hone their skills.
How do you hope to make a difference in the world?
I think the biggest thing for me is to improve myself so I can keep working to improve the environment. I think I’ll always be involved in STEM. It’s a huge part of me. And I want to use it to help the environment in whatever way I can.
What would you say to students who, like you, aspire to invent solutions to the world’s problems, but don’t feel their idea is good enough?
I think if you have a problem and you find a solution to that problem — or at least find a way to find a solution to that problem — you’re already in a different league.
As an inventor, I think a person who has one solution to one problem is still far better than people who have had multiple solutions to a problem but have never gone the extra step to try to implement it. So I think it’s always better to have an idea and to have a solution, even if it isn’t the greatest solution and try to push that solution forward than it is for a person who has multiple solutions.
If you have enough motivation to find a solution to a problem, that is enough of a testament for you to continue. You’re intrinsically smart enough to push that forward, and try to implement it.
