PNG chemist with a winning formula
Young Papua New Guinean chemist Yalinu Poya has won an international award for her research into making sustainable synthetic fertiliser.
Poya was among 25 recipients to recently receive a Green
Talent Award from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
There were more than 837 applicants for the awards from all over the world and from many scientific disciplines.
In her research, Poya is looking to improve the process that makes ammonia, which is used to make synthetic fertiliser.
She says the process to make ammonia makes up two per cent of the world’s energy demand and contributes to global warming by releasing
1.6 per cent of human-made carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
She aims to make ammonia synthesis more sustainable, highly efficient and applicable in small-scale plants using renewable energy sources such as wind energy.
It is the second international science award won by Poya. In May last year she was named as one of the top 118 young chemists under 40 in the world.
Poya graduated as PNG’s first female Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, last December. ■