How The ‘Fridge to bridge the world’ Makes medicinal transport More accessible to all

The Earth Prize describes itself as “the world’s largest environmental competition for young people” ages 13–19. It has seen participation from innovators spanning 150 countries, with its stated goal being to “inspire and empower the next generation of environmental leaders and innovators, creating a global platform for sharing and scaling their solutions.” Beginning this year, The Earth Prize is giving $12,500 to winners representing seven regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, Central & South America, and Oceania. In addition, The Earth Prize is recognizing three Mentors and three Educators of the Year, with each honoree receiving a $2,500 prize.

In what it said is “a bid to improve healthcare accessibility and energy disparity,” The Earth Prize has announced the Asia winners of this year’s awards is Thermavault. The Earth Prize describes the device as “a first-of-its-kind, electricity-free refrigeration unit for medical supply transport in remote areas, using reusable salt-based reactions.” The trio behind Thermavault in Dhruv Chaudhary, Mithran Ladhania, and Mridul Jain, call their invention “a fridge to bridge the world.” The young men who designed and developed Thermavault are students at the Shishukunj International School at Indore.

In a brief interview conducted earlier this month via videoconference, Ladhania and his co-creators explained to me “we’re all from families which have medical backgrounds,” adding that context “was indeed a part of what led us to develop Thermavault and target the supply of medical transport.” He said work on Thermavault began only recently when, in November of last year, the friends took part in a science fair at their school involving a project that created a cooling system which could replace conventional air conditioners. The system, Ladhania said, would be “about 40% more efficient” than standard AC units. That technology triggered a brainstorm: using the concept, scaled down to the size of a smallish box, to swap out air conditioners for refrigerators instead. The idea, Ladhania told me, would be to use the cooling system in fridges specifically designed to transport medication such as vaccines. As The Earth Prize is an environmentally-oriented endeavor, Ladhania said the main problem is most medical fridges require enormous amounts of electricity to function properly, which is problematic in rural parts of the world that doesn’t see a steady stream of reliable electricity—if at all—due to a lack of the infrastructure needed for delivery. There are concerns around pollution and subsequent environmental degradation. The team seized an opportunity to fill “a gap that needs to be addressed,” Ladhania said.

According to Ladhania, 1.2 billion people worldwide live without access to electricity. Besides missing out on basic things like the internet, the lack of power spells trouble for medicinal transport for those who need it; Ladhania said a standard refrigerator isn’t viable because there’s no electricity, while a single-use fridge is wasteful and not reusable. You’d need electricity anyway to make more ice. Enter Thermavault, which for people who live without access to electricity, is a lifeline to critical medication(s). The device, Ladhania told me, is marketed as “a reusable, environmentally-friendly cooling alternative for vaccine storage.” It isn’t solely a solution for moving vaccines—it can be applied to other medications requiring cold to remain viable for maximal efficiency.

"While our major pitching point has been about vaccines, we do see other use cases,” Ladhania said. “Thermavault is applicable for transport of any medical supply which requires a very specific temperature range of either 0° to 10° Celsius or subzero temperatures. In the future, we do think Thermavault has potential to be scaled up to a model that could maybe even tackle storing food supplies or be used as an industrial cooling solution. As of now, our major focus has been on helping people in need [and] people suffering from that energy disparity… we try to bridge that gap in the world.”

It’s these sentiments about helping people in need that carry the most resonance from an accessibility standpoint. While the technological and engineering aspects of Thermavault are undoubtedly impressive, what struck me when deciding to cover Thermavault was its potential effects on the disability community. To wit, there surely are people with disabilities living in rural areas across the continents. Many very likely need some sort of life-sustaining medication. For these people, then, Thermavault has the capacity to be a literal lifesaver insofar as the device can deliver said medication(s) in a safe and efficient manner. These people need medication, whether they have electricity or not. Thermavault is a solution reflective of that reality. In this sense, that Thermavault is built with an environmental consciousness, what with its salt packets, is beside the point. It’s the proverbial icing on the cake. At its core, Thermavault is an assistive technology built for accessibility and, ultimately, the betterment of society.

When asked about feedback on Thermavault, the team told me one of the greatest, most validating experience of Thermavault’s development was getting the opportunity to field-test the product in order to test its efficacy. It was invaluable for the team to use what was a “basic prototype” not solely in a controlled, pristine lab setting but also within an “erratic environment” in the real world. Moreover, Thermavault was tested in a hospital over a three-week period and garnered positive reviews from workers there. Ladhania said the hospital staff came away “rather impressed” by the device’s capabilities, adding they were especially taken by “the possibility of how the reward could potentially transform a simple problem that they face on a day-to-day basis.”

“[Thermavault was] pretty well-received by the medical industry,” he said.

Looking towards the future, the team told me they “look forward” to getting Thermavault certified by regulatory bodies, telling me they’d like to begin the process with local governments. Longer-term, the team aspires to work its way up the proverbial ladder to spark talks with the Indian government and maybe even organizations such as the venerable World Health Organization. Certification, they told me, aligns with their collective vision on scaling Thermavault. Ladhania said the team feels Thermavault “can have great international impact.” And with the Earth Prize earnings, the team hopes to use a portion of the money to patent its technology.

The Earth Prize is overseen by the eponymously-named Earth Foundation, a Switzerland-based nonprofit. The Foundation describes its mission as “dedicated to inspiring, educating, mentoring, and empowering students and young entrepreneurs to address environmental challenges with innovative ideas.” The Earth Prize, alongside the Earth Foundation Alliance, are “flagship initiatives” intended to “foster an ecosystem that accelerates positive change toward environmental sustainability.”

Voting for The Earth Prize’s 2025 Global Winner is open until Earth Day on April 22.