Three teenagers in India have created a mini-fridge that cools down with the help of salt and does not require electric power supply. They will donate the device of hospitals from isolated areas for safe transport of medical materials.
The invention brought to the three teenage the 2025 photo Theearthprize.org
Dhruv Chaudary, Mithran Ladhania and Mrid Jain have parents working in the medical field. After hearing how difficult it was to transport anti-Covid-19 vaccines in rural areas without electricity, the three decided to look for an alternative method of refrigeration, based on salt, according to Business Insider.
Their invention, called Thermavault, brought them the Earth Prize Prize 2025, worth $ 12,500. The money will be used to build 200 refrigerators, which will be sent for testing to 120 hospitals.
“We hope that this refrigerator will help not only the transport of vaccines, but also other drugs, medical equipment and even transplant organs”the young inventors said.
Successfully tested in a hospital
“We managed to keep the vaccines inside Thermavault for almost 10-12 hours”said Dr. Pritesh Vyas, orthopedic at V One Hospital in Indore, in a video published on the project website. He added that with some improvements – like an integrated temperature monitor – the device “It will definitely be useful in isolated places, in villages”.
Certain salts, when dissolved in water, have a cooling effect. The dissolution process involves the separation of the ions that make up the salt, and this separation absorbs energy from the environment, lowering the water temperature.
Initially, young people searched 150 types of salts online, which they reduced to 20 for testing in a laboratory of India Technological Institutes. No one offered the desired results.
The saving solution came from a school teacher, who recommended them to try two salts mentioned in the 9th grade manual: ammonium chloride and octahydrate barium hydroxide.
The ammonium chloride allows the temperatures between 2 and 6 ° C, ideal for vaccines, and the combination with barium hydroxide allows cooling below 0 ° C – suitable for other types of vaccines or for transplant organs.
Core -insulated box
Thermavault is an isolated plastic box with an interior copper wall. The vaccines or organs are placed inside, and the cooling solution (dissolved salt water) is poured between the outer plastic and inner copper walls.
Unlike the classic ice boxes, this system allows reuse directly to the field, without electricity. Salt can be recovered by boiling water and reused.
Young people will use the prize money to obtain PQS certification (performance, quality, safety) from the World Health Organization, which would allow them to collaborate with Gavi, the international alliance that distributes vaccines.
The Earth Prize program has also made available a volunteer to help them in the efforts to obtain a patent.
