school who won the grand prize at Google's science fair for using
orange peel to develop a cheap super-absorbent material to help soil
retain water.
The teenager, Kiara Nirghin beat students from all over the world for
a $50,000 (£38,000) scholarship with her "fighting drought with fruit"
submission.
Her work was in response to the recent drought that has hit South Africa .
The drought, the worst since 1982, led to crop failures and animals dying.
Kiara who is a student at St Martin's High School in metropolitan
Johannesburg, said three experiments over 45 days resulted in her
coming up with the "orange peel mixture" as an alternative to
expensive and non-biodegradable super-absorbent polymers (SAPs).
It was made out of waste products from the juice-manufacturing
industry, she said.
These included molecules found in orange peels and naturally occurring
oils in avocado skins.
"The product is fully biodegradable, low-cost and has better water
retaining properties than commercial SAPs. The only resources involved
in the creation of the 'orange peel mixture' were electricity and
time, no special equipment nor materials were required," Ms Nirghin
added in her online submission.
The student, who was awarded the prize at the annual fair in
California, said she hoped it would help farmers save both money and
their crops.
The competition was open to children from the ages of 13 to 18.
