Australian teen competes in Stockholm with her water-smart, climate-friendly biodiesel

Tasmanian high school student Storm Holwill represented Australia in the world’s leading secondary schools water science competition, the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, held last night in Sweden.

The annual Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition brings together the world’s brightest young scientists to compete for the acclaimed prize, held as part of 2009 World Water Week. This year’s competition saw a record 3500 submitted projects from over 30 countries.

The winner of Australian Stockholm Junior Water Prize hosted by the Australian Water Association (AWA), Holwill was taken to Sweden with a representative from the AWA to compete in the international finals.

Holwill, a year 11 student from Marist Regional College in Burnie, Tasmania, was selected for her project 'In the Name of Freshwater', an investigation into the capacity of marine environments to produce plant biofuel without the use of fresh water.

According to judges from the Australian Water Association (AWA), Holwill demonstrated high levels of sophisticated problem solving in her project, addressing the global problems of freshwater scarcity, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and of diminishing fossil fuel levels.

The international prize was presented to Ms Ceren Burçak Dag of Turkey for developing an innovative method for generating energy through piezoelectric pulses from falling rain drops.

"Many young people are concerned about climate change, but few will take action to identify a solution," noted the Stockholm Junior Water Prize Jury in its citation. "Reducing CO2 emissions by developing alternative environment-friendly, renewable energy sources is a specific response to this global problem. This year’s winner had a spark of genius in developing a high tech solution that used PVDF, a smart material with piezoelectric properties, to transfer the kinetic energy of raindrops into electrical energy."

The Australian Stockholm Junior Water Prize is organised by the Australian Water Association and sponsored by ITT Corporation. Entries are now open for the 2010 Stockholm Junior Water Prize. Teachers and secondary students are encouraged to visit www.awa.asn.au/awards for more details on how to enter.

Storm Holwill’s project demonstrated the huge potential for algal bioreactors in marine environments. Seawater microalgae can absorb and sequester carbon dioxide and be converted into bioenergy. Thus, the microalgae can help mitigate climate change and meet rising demand for energy without adding pressure on land and freshwater resources.

In her research, Holwill identified that one of the global responses to these challenges has been a huge increase in cultivation of land crops such as corn to produce plant biomass for biodiesel. However, these crops are irrigated with fresh water and are using land space that is in high demand for food production.

“Some algal species have been found to be very suitable for the production of biofuels because of their highly unsaturated fatty acid contents, but my research reading so far shows that freshwater algae are predominantly used. This research set out to investigate if plant biomass for biodiesel production could be produced in marine environments, thus eliminating the necessity to use fresh water,” said Holwill.

“The potential of the system to sequester atmospheric and industrial CO₂ was also investigated as an added environmental benefit,” Holwill added.