Babylon Students Named National Semifinalists for Novel Science Project

Babylon High School seniors and involved members of the school’s science research program, Jed Dale and Max Pitagno, have been named national semifinalists in the Clean Tech Competition, which tasks students with finding real-world clean energy solutions. 

Their project, “The bioremediation of 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane (R-134a) by Scendesmus sp. as Facilitated by Titanium Dioxide and Activated Charcoal,” has proven to be a novel solution to facilitating the remediation of car coolant using algae in a clean way and has earned them a minimum of $300 thus far. 

The students are one of only 50 teams to be selected nationwide out of an original pool of several hundred applicants. The 10 teams chosen to move on to the finalist level will be announced at the end of April.  If chosen, Jed and Max will be given a stipend of up to $15,000 to create a new prototype of their solution and will meet with industry representatives to discuss official production of their solution to pollution. 

Photo provided by the Babylon School District