GRIP Award Won - Sustainable Energy in Rural India

During the Global Research and Innovation Programme (GRIP) of 2021, associated with NUS and NTU, Singapore, Ambika from Grade 12 was part of a group project. Ending up in second place, Ambika’s group had identified the problem of lack of electricity in rural areas of India. To address the problem and to create climate friendly electricity, they created an Enhanced Cathodic Substrate (ECS) fuel cell, that generates electricity from glucose found in sugarcane and bacteria found in manure. We got in touch with Ambika to hear more about the group’s project and what this might mean for the future.  

To combat the issue of lack of electricity in rural areas, Ambika decided to make use of his knowledge of Chemistry and Physics to design the ECS fuel cell. “The research was performed by me and my team through online collaboration”, says Ambika, whose team made use of theoretical knowledge from several Physics journals and prior research papers to formulate the basis of the project. The project, named ‘Project Ummeed', received the second prize in the GRIP. 

Being exited and committed to their planned product, Ambika and his group tested their prototype in over 20 villages in five states in India, where they were able to generate over 15V from a combination of 20 ECS cells. “We intend to further develop our project and present it to the Indian Government for industrial scaling and securing a patent”, says Ambika, whose group is convinced that they have produced an innovation that will provide sustainable and affordable electricity to rural residents. The cells have the potential of powering, for example, low-voltage light bulbs and table fans, and being run on materials that are readily available to Indian rural residents.