High School Student Achieves Major Success at TEKNOFEST

High School Student Wins Major Award at TEKNOFEST Hulusi Diler, a high school student from Afyonkarahisar, will have the opportunity to test his project "Recovery of Crude Oil Spills from Water Using Platanus Orientalis L. Adsorbent" during the 3rd National Arctic Scientific Research Expedition in the Arctic. Diler, 16, a student at Dumlupınar Science and Art Center and winner of the 2204-D High School Students Climate Change Research Projects Competition organized within the scope of TEKNOFEST by the Ministry of Industry and Technology, received his prize worth TRY 30,000 from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at TEKNOFEST held in Istanbul. Drawing attention with his project, Diler is honored to participate in the Arctic expedition coordinated by TÜBİTAK MAM Polar Research Institute (KARE) under the Ministry of Industry and Technology and under the patronage of the Presidency. Diler, who said he aims to clean petroleum in water using naturally occurring substances, continued as follows: "For this, I used the fruit of the oriental plane tree. Because it is found everywhere and I researched its fibers. As a result, I learned that it could clean petroleum. I conducted experiments using ASTM procedures. We also used different materials. The fibers of the oriental plane tree fruit gave the best result. Where I used one gram, we cleaned 26 grams of petroleum. When I won this first place, I was very happy in the first place. In the end, I was very happy because my efforts were rewarded. Being the first high school student to go on an Arctic scientific expedition made me very happy because the scientific research I will conduct there and the scientists I will meet will make great contributions to my future life. I want to test my project in the Arctic, where we will go towards the end of this year."  

"Thousands of gallons of crude oil are spilled into the sea"

Advisor teacher Yıldız Leblebicier explained that she and her student Hulusi Diler have been preparing projects with experimental work on green chemistry for many years. Reminding that the world is increasingly polluted every year, Leblebicier continued her remarks as follows: "Currently oil is indispensable and all countries in the world use this oil. Oil is mostly transported by sea routes or extracted from oil wells in the sea. During this transportation and oil extraction, various accidents occur. As a result of these accidents, thousands, millions of gallons of crude oil are spilled into the sea. Since petroleum is lighter than water, it creates a film layer on the surface of the sea. Therefore, it prevents both sunlight and oxygen from reaching marine life. In this way, we damage the marine ecosystem. And that, of course, affects us."   Leblebicier, expressing that they conducted studies to clean petroleum from water using renewable raw materials, noted the following: "We conducted experiments on dandelion, human hair waste and oriental plane tree fibers, which are products that we can easily access in our surroundings, have low density, do not like water but like crude petroleum and mineral oils. Among these, the fibers of the oriental plane tree fruit gave us the best yield. Later we planned our work on these fibers. The oriental plane tree is a perennial plant and can live for many years. It produces large quantities of fruit and quickly. It is not difficult to obtain this. It is easy to grow. After finding the raw material, the production part is not a part that requires technology. It simply involves breaking and sieving the fruit. With the samples we prepare this way, we think people can clean petroleum spills wherever needed." Saying that one of the rewards brought by this project is the inclusion of her student Hulusi Diler in the 3rd National Arctic Scientific Research Expedition, Leblebicier expressed herself as follows: "He will go to the poles at the end of 2023 and conduct this research there as well. I am very happy on behalf of the institution, on behalf of my student and on my own behalf as a teacher."   Source