Kevin Kung's company wins Prince William's inaugural Earthshot Prize

Switzer Fellow Kevin Kung's company Takachar has won Prince William's inaugural Earthshot Prize in the Clean our Air category.

Globally, we generate $120 billion of agricultural waste every year. What farmers cannot sell, they often burn, with catastrophic consequences for human health and the environment. The burning of agricultural waste causes air pollution that in some areas has reduced life expectancy by a decade.

Takachar has developed a cheap, small-scale, portable technology that attaches to tractors in remote farms. The machine converts crop residues into sellable bio-products like fuel and fertilizer. The solution has potential to help manage the excess woody residues and mitigate wildfires in the West Coast as well. 

Takachar’s technology reduces smoke emissions by up to 98% which will help improve the air quality that currently reduces the affected population’s life expectancy by up to 5 years. If scaled, it could cut a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Kevin co-founded Takachar with Vidyut Mohan, who accepted the award.  

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