JOZEF Molnár will represent Slovakia in August at the prestigious International Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition. In all, national winners from 30 countries will compete for the honour, which includes US$5,000 and a blue crystal sculpture in the shape of a water droplet.
The international Stockholm Junior Water Prize finale will be held during the 2009 World Water Week in Stockholm, August 16-22, the leading annual meeting place for the planet’s most urgent water-related issues.
To fight water pollution Molnár investigated effective options to remove dangerous heavy metals and sulphates from water resulting from acid mine drainage (the outflow of acidic water from mines).
His research confirmed that glycerol, saccharose, glucose and whey are all suitable alternative substrates of sodium lactate that can reduce bacterial sulphate.
Calcium lactate was found ato be the most efficient option. Application of these findings can reduce costs and negative environmental impacts on water globally.
