Brandon Twp.- Jessica Laviolette has done it again.
On March 8, the Brandon High School senior won the grand prize at the Science and Engineering Fair of Metropolitan Detroit, along with eight professional awards, including a grand prize from DTE Energy; six first-place prizes and a second-place prize.
The wins repeat Laviolette’s success last year at the fair, when she won the grand prize, as well as an additional seven first place professional awards for her project ‘Rapid Production of Ethanol by Vacuum Process.?
Her winning project this year was ‘Optimizing Ethanol Production Efficiency,? and improved upon principles Laviolette applied in her project last year, in which she used special membranes and removed all oxygen through vacuum processing to increase ethanol production efficiency and concentration before distillation.
‘I’ve increased the rate of ethanol production and the longevity of the process,? Laviolette says. ‘Yeast usually dies after 48 hours. My patent-pending process allows it to continue indefinitely.?
Ethanol is one of the cleanest fuels available, but is expensive to make because it is not produced efficiently. Laviolette’s process makes ethanol production 100-percent efficient. She is currently working with Archer Daniels Midland Company, one of America’s leading producers of ethanol.
Laviolette uses vacuum science and a selectively permeable membrance in her process. Last year, she used dialysis tubing, but she has improved on that this year and is also using an improved membrane.
Her grand prize win guaranteed her a spot in the International Science and Engineering Fair, hosted by Intel, to be in Indianapolis May 7-12. As the grand prize winner, all of Laviolette’s expenses are paid for this trip.
Her professional first place awards, which included a cash award as well as U.S. savings bonds, were given by the American Chemical Society, Detroit Section; Herbert Hoover Library Association; National Society for Professional Engineers; Society of Automotive Engineers; U.S. Metric Association Award; and, the biggest of all, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science.
The Weizmann Award is given to the top high school senior at the fair. As the winner of this award, Laviolette will study at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel from July 3-28. During her all-expense paid trip, she will have three weeks of lab time under the guidance of science researchers from around the world and will spend her final week in the Judean Desert as part of cultural appreciation. She will be one of 20 Americans on the trip and 50 other students from around the world will also be there, studying with kids from Israel.
‘It’s going to be fun,? Laviolette said. ‘I’m excited.?