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Maxwell Photography
Eoghan Flynn and Ruairi O’Neill from Blackwater Community School in Lismore, Co Waterford
# Science
Science students pick up prize for fuel project
Two third year students from Co Waterford won the top prize at SciFest@Intel 2011 for their project, which converts plastic into the fuel source crude oil.
TWO IRISH STUDENTS have picked up the top prize at SciFest@Intel 2011.
The third year students Eoghan Flynn and Ruairi O’Neill from Blackwater Community School in Lismore, Co Waterford, won the award for their project which converts plastic into crude oil, a usable fuel source.
Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, Ciaran Cannon TD, presented the winners with their prize – a trip to International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in May 2012, where they will represent Ireland.
SciFest, which is supported by Discover Science and Engineering, is a national exhibition of the winning projects from 14 regional SciFest fairs which took place earlier this year at Institutes of Technology around the country.
Eoghan and Ruairí designed a homemade, inexpensive and efficient apparatus which can convert end of life plastics (ELP) into a usable fuel source.
This in turn solves problems associated with fuel shortages and the disposal of plastics.
The young students developed apparatus that helped them discover that ELP fuel production can be done at home.
They say their vision is that this technology “could be used in both the developed and developing worlds to help combat fuel shortages and reduce the amount of ELPs sent to landfill”.
SciFest 2012, a series of science fairs supported by Intel and Discover Science and Engineering and hosted by the Institutes of Technology and the University of Ulster, is now open for entry.
