APEC spotlight: Pinay who created lamp that runs on saltwater

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Aisa Mijeno — an engineer and environmental advocate and faculty member of Engineering at De La Salle University-Lipa — was thrust into the global limelight at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit on Wed, Nov 18.

“Mijeno co-founded Sustainable Alternative Lighting (SALT), a company that makes innovative lamps powered by saltwater. She was part of a panel discussion that also included US President Barack Obama and Chinese billionaire Jack Ma who built Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce platform,” reports Doris Dumlao-Abadilla in Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The report noted: “Mijeno conceptualized the saltwater-powered lamp after living with the natives of the Butbut tribe in Kalinga who relied only on kerosene lamps and moonlight to do evening chores.”

The SALT lamp “uses saline solution or even ocean water and can operate for about eight hours for lighting or cellphone charging.”

The report revealed that “Obama cited Mijeno, the CEO of SALT, as a fine example of ‘young entrepreneurs coming out with leapfrog technologies.'”

Photo: Handout