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The 2007 winner of the Avogadro award was Ms.
Melissa A. Ingram, a junior at Edgewood Jr/Sr High School in Brevard
County. Ms. Ingram was chosen to receive the $602.23 by winning
first place in the Senior Chemistry category at the State Science and
Engineering Fair.
The abstract of her project follows:
Comparative Compositions and Properties of Fuel Alternatives – Year III
As the popularity of alternative fuels increases,
so does the amount of criticism condoned on them. The quality of
home-grown biodiesel is questioned, as is its energy content relative to
diesel fuel; the life-cycle energy efficiency and energy content of
ethanol is disputed among private university economists and government
officials alike; although hydrogen is receiving nearly five times the
amount of government R& D funding of all other alternative fuels
combined, successful and efficient production methods have not been
developed. Even when pressurized or liquefied, the energy content
of hydrogen seems too low to deem it useful, and storing the fuel is a
research branch dominated by many questions with few answers. The
purpose of this project was to analyze all the said problems and come up
with solutions to each. Two biodiesel processors were constructed,
one of which operates by a mechanical stirring device, and the other
using a magnetic stirring device with an optional methanol recovery unit
that is powered by photovoltaic cells. The quality of the
biodiesel produced was assessed with the fuel’s specific composition
given by GC-MS analysis. H2O was compared to diesel fuel by
mileage tests, and the energy content of different concentrations of
biodiesel and ethanol were measured using a bomb calorimeter. A
hydrogen production and storage module was manufactured, as was a device
for testing the performance of a single- or double-stacked PEM fuel
cell. Also produced was a model hydrogen fuel cell car, and the
reports detailing the life-cycle efficiency of ethanol were thoroughly
analyzed and replicated, when feasible. Statistical analysis tools
were applied to all data for which it was applicable. The results
of this study show that many issues with alternative fuel use are
unjustified by sound laboratory testing. |