LOCAL unemployed engineer and designer Peter Allison has been awarded as a finalist in the Aspiring Inventors Competition held in conjunction with the Floriade Festival in Canberra this month.
“The winning of this award leaves me with a warm glow after more than a decade of development, testing and torment,” a delighted Mr Allison said.
Entries from all over the country were submitted to the Australian Inventors Association assessment panel for judging.
This gala event was hosted by Fernella Kernebone and the awards presented by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.
Peter was awarded for his globally transportable bio-reactor design, which has had great success in India, with one unit installed at Pune University’s agricultural campus and another at the Volkswagen production facility canteen.
“These bio-reactor units enable the conversion of waste organic matter, which would usually go to landfill, into clean burning fuel-gas and sustainable crop fertilisers,” Peter said.
“The fuel-gas is used to power the canteen kitchens in both of these large institutions and the crop fertiliser is very successfully utilised in many agricultural applications.”
Mr Allison said the original design for the plant and prototype unit was commissioned by Treco Ltd, a renewable energy co-operative based in Wauchope.
“Although the co-op folded some years ago, I have continued to privately fund and enable development of the bio-reactor to the point at which it is today,” he said.
“The Indians were able to see the benefits of such a system and took up the challenge of constructing full-scale plants with gusto – and I congratulate them and their success with my design.
“I was extremely pleased with their response to following plans to the letter and the fact they were able to achieve a 22 percent better output of product than I had ever claimed.”
