Making ink and paint from agricultural waste: Student group wins big at the Ministry of Education and Training's startup program

The Botanical Inks (BINKS) project of a group of students from Danang University has just won first prize in the program to support students to accelerate their social impact startups of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).

From agricultural waste, students of Danang University have created writing ink and paint.

Team leader Tran Nhan Kiet (Biomedical Sciences, Vietnam-UK Research and Training Institute) shared that every year, hundreds of tons of vegetable, root and fruit by-products are thrown away, causing waste of resources and environmental pollution. Meanwhile, many parents are concerned about the safety of the inks and paints their children use. The demand for environmentally friendly products is increasing.

Based on that reality, Kiet and his colleagues thought of using agricultural waste from markets and farms to create writing ink and paint. The group worked hard to research the color transformation process of anthocyanin compounds obtained from vegetables, tubers, and fruits. To get a reasonable and effective formula, they went through countless experiments, adjusting temperature and pH parameters, etc. Finally, writing ink and paint from vegetables were born with a new production process, almost never applied in Vietnam.

Kiet said that the advantages of the product are that it does not contain toxic chemicals to create color, is cheaper and dries about 6 times faster than watercolor paints on the market (about 3-4 minutes compared to 25-30 minutes). After its launch, the product was purchased by many places, especially art classes and kindergartens. "This is an important premise for commercializing the product in the next stage with two new directions for making printing ink and fabric dyes - two materials that are dominating the textile and printing industries," Kiet acknowledged.

BINKS won first prize and was awarded 50 million VND in "seed capital".

With the First Prize, BINKS was awarded “seed capital” of 50 million VND from the Ministry of Education and Training and The Happiness Foundation, SK Group (Korea). The Program to Support Student Startup Acceleration to Create Social Impact aims to welcome student startup groups with excellent projects that have won high prizes in the annual Student Startup Idea Competition organized by the Ministry of Education and Training, thereby providing in-depth knowledge and “seed capital” to encourage clear product development, launch to the market, contribute to solving social needs and protecting the environment.

Thanh Hien

Source: https://tienphong.vn/che-muc-viet-mau-ve-tu-phe-pham-nong-san-nhom-sinh-vien-thang-lon-o-chuong-trinh-khoi-nghiep-cua-bo-gddt-post1742039.tpo