Lúc is in The Netherlands to show award winning project
LÚC de Barra from Wicklow Town and a pupil of Colaiste Raithin in Bray is in Utrecht, The Netherlands this week, showing his scientific work at a prestigious exhibition.
Lúc was one of the winners at last year’s Dublin Scifest and he investigated the potential of native Scots pine needles as a viable biodiesel feedstock.
On the basis of his background research, he hypothesised that pine needle oil had significant untapped potential in biodesel production.
He acquired a large quantity of pine needles and extracted their oil. He then carried out a series of experiments on the oil and compared its properties with diesel and rapeseed biodiesel.
While the results did not support his hy- pothesis, Lúc believes that his work has added significantly to scientific knowledge in this area.
He explained that the event in Ultrecht is similar to the Young Scientist set-up, with two days of exhibiting before an awards ceremony on Thursday.
He said that he has been looking at the other projects with great interest, and there has been a lot of interest in his own work. There are young people there from all over the world.
His brother James accompanied him to the event, along with a supervisor.
The sixth year pupil has promised to get in touch following the awards ceremony to let us know how he does.