The team of Armenian students has made it to the final of The Earth Prize international environmental competition. 12th grade students of Ayb school Ilya Lalazaryan, Nane Yengibaryan and Meri Shushanyan represent Armenia with Rene’Mask project of recycling medical masks. Chemistry teacher Lilit Hambardzumyan is the scientific supervisor of the project.
A total of 650 teams from 516 schools representing 114 countries had applied for participation the competition. In the final stage the Armenian students will compete with teams from Great Britain, Vietnam, Switzerland, Taiwan, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Jamaica and Kenya. Eton Collage (Great Britain), Havergal College (Canada), International School of Zug and Luzern (Switzerland) and others are among the top ten schools.
The author of the RenéMask project is Ilya Lalazaryan. As a result of research, experiments and discussions at the school, under the guidance of chemistry teacher Lilit Hambardzumyan, Ilya has developed a method for obtaining fuel from face masks in the laboratory. Thus, RenéMask offers a solution to two major problems – environmental pollution and growing demand for alternative energy sources. Through chemical processing of masks it is possible to get liquid fuel, which can be used in heat transfer devices and some engines.
The Earth Prize is an environmental sustainability competition for teams of 13-19 year old students attending the same school. The winning solution will have real-world impact potential.
On March 25th, one of the Finalist teams will be announced as The Earth Prize Winner and will receive a prize of $100,000, to be split in half between the team members and their school. Three runner-up schools will also be awarded $25,000 each.
