Irish Independent Tabloid
Tuesday, 4 June 2013
Grainne Cunningham
ICE is not often a problem for firefighters, but a group of teenagers have made sure the local brigade’s tenders will never again suffer from frosted windows.
Transition year student (Stephen Brosnan (16) and his fellow entrepreneurs have developed a liquid that prevents ice forming on windscreens.
Limerick Fire Brigade has bought a batch of the product, called F21-D, created by Stephen and fellow students Simon Geaney, Luke Barry, Shauna Tobin and Tom Flavin from Desmond College in Newcastlewest, Co Limerick.
The students have set up a company, also called F21-D, that makes car-care products and has received an order for 2,000 units from a global tyre distribution company.
Profitable
Stephen said they came up with the idea for their anti-freeze product after his father hit a road barrier because of an iced windscreen.
F21-D the D is in honour of a former classmate who died from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome – is a profitable product, and the company is now considering bottling it in China or investing in its own bottling equipment in Ireland.
The Desmond College team is one of 19 from around the country who have secured places at a Student Enteprise Awards bootcamp in the Nexus Innovation Centre at the University of Limerick this week.
The bootcamp, organised by the county and city enterprise boards and sponsored by Ulster Bank, will encourage participants to swap ideas, receive mentoring and get feedback on their busines pitches from experts and entrepreneurs.