Young talent competition54th round of 'Jugend forscht' launched
Under the motto "Ask yourself!", the 'Jugend forscht' competition is starting a new round. As of now, young people can once again register their research projects in the fields of mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology (STEM).
Alice Höfler took third place in the technology category this year. In her project, she dealt with air pollution caused by particulate matter. The main sources of particulate matter are road traffic and industrial plants, but even ordinary ovens emit micrometer-fine dust particles. This is where Höfler's research project comes in: She designed a filter that is attached to the chimney and cleans the fine dust from the stove smoke. The smoke flows through a curtain of water. In this way, the dust particles are washed out of the gas. The young researcher tested the concept with a self-built tiled stove and determined the fine dust concentrations in front of and behind the filter using specially constructed sensors. As a result, her filter was able to remove an average of around 70 percent of the fine dust from the smoke.