The Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced the winner of the 2017 BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge on May 4 during a special awards ceremony. The winning infographic, titled “Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Algae,” was created by two students from Normal Community West High School in Normal, Illinois. BETO is excited to invite the team to present their infographic at BETO’s upcoming annual conference, Bioeconomy 2017: Domestic Resources for a Vibrant Future, in Arlington, Virginia, on July 11–12. 

The U.S. Department of Energy’s BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge invites teams of high school students to research one of five cross-curricular bioenergy topics and design infographics to share what they have learned through various social media channels. The purpose of the Challenge is to enhance students’ energy literacy and foundational knowledge about bioenergy and to help students understand how they can play an important role in shaping America’s energy future. After students submitted their infographics, the submissions were posted on social media, where they received over 21,000 unique page views! 

The winning infographic alone received nearly 1,000 individual page views during the 11-day social media campaign portion of the challenge. It details the process of using hydrothermal liquefaction to convert algae into renewable fuels, as well as the benefits and challenges of the process. The winning team was chosen based on the overall quality of their infographic’s design and content, as well as the number of unique page views during the second portion of the competition. BETO would also like to recognize the first and second runners up from the challenge:

BETO congratulates all the participants on their hard work and would like to thank everyone who took part in the social media campaign. The BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge is part of BETO’s overall workforce development efforts to engage future scientists and engineers in the emerging bioeconomy.