8 big ideas to watch in '08

Sir Richard will help fund U.S. entrepreneurs, jetpacks will finally fly, and GPS devices will show the cheapest gas nearby - plus much more! Check out our Next Little Thing picks for 2008.

A greener charcoal
Jules Walter makes his charcoal from sugar cane waste. It burns cleaner than rival products.
A greener charcoal
Cooking fuel doesn't seem like much to ask for, but an estimated 2.4 billion people worldwide struggle to find it. Consider Haiti, where 700 tons of wood is burned annually, and smoke from thousands of charcoal fires has led to widespread respiratory infections. "Propane is not accessible, and electricity is not affordable," says Haitian native Jules Walter. "These people do not have any alternative."

That's why Walter has started a company called Bagazo to sell low-cost charcoal briquettes made from plant waste to his countrymen. Bagazo is Spanish for "bagasse," or sugar cane waste, but corn cobs and banana leaves can also be used in Walter's process.

The waste material is carbonized, mixed with a binder, pressed into briquettes, and allowed to dry. The result burns far cleaner and longer than wood.

It costs $3 to make a 44-pound bag of Bagazo briquettes, $2 cheaper than the production cost of regular charcoal. Walter will sell the bags for $5 each - just as soon as he graduates from MIT in 2008.

Bagazo is locking in partnerships with local sugar cane suppliers and encouraging them to buy shares in the company. Since electricity is pricey, his team is considering using solar technology to power the carbonization machines.

Walter thinks he's looking at a $125-million-a-year market in Haiti alone, but he is aiming for a more modest $3.1 million in annual revenue by 2012. If all goes well in Haiti, Bagazo will replicate the concept in other developing countries, such as Kenya and Tanzania. "We want to inspire entrepreneurs," Walter says. "It is possible to do good and make money. You need to believe in how your company can impact the world."

Virgin Money

Electric cars

Greener charcoal

Jetpacks

Wi-Fly

Weedy wine

Real estate in '08

Advanced GPS
Read the full stories behind our 8 picks for 2008. (more)
Behind the scenes at the Boston launch of Virgin Money, Richard Branson's new peer-to-peer lending service. (more)
Check out how our past Next Little Thing picks are holding up. (more)

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.