Kiara Nirghin is a 16-year-old girl from Johannesburg, South Africa. From the young age of seven, she has loved chemistry and physics. After recognizing the serious drought problem in South Africa, Kiara decided to take action and try to find a way to combat this tragedy.

Kira founded Superabsorbent Polymers (SAPs) as the solution. SAPs can absorb and carry roughly 300 times its weight in liquid. “When a SAP is cross-linked with polymerization, the product is water retaining hydrogels that act as a reservoir of collected water in soil,” she learned, according to the Google Science Fair website.

But the issue with SAPs are they are not biodegradable, they are expensive and they are full of different chemicals. But after doing more research, Kiara discovered there are natural polymers that exist in many citrus fruits. Orange peels were a top candidate to be her biodegradable polymer.

Kiara ran into obstacles, but through research and experimentation she was able to overcome these issues and was able to create a natural, biodegradable Superabsorbent Polymer from orange peels. Her “orange peel mixture” had the best water absorbing abilities of 76.1%, according to her research.

For more information, facts, and details regarding Kiara Nirghin’s project, please visit: https://www.googlesciencefair.com/projects/en/2016/deb654bce83b15eed364f52fa8685634649014602eca78858c58fec00aa6041a