Objectives/Goals
The objective was to determine if an average family
can support its home's fuel needs for a week by converting a week's worth of
organic garbage into alcohol fuel.
Methods/Materials
A fraction of a family's organic garbage output was
mashed and fermented in a warm environment for 7 days. A homemade still, built
from a pressure cooker, 10 feet of copper tubing, a coffee can, and a small bowl,
distilled the newly formed alcohol out of the fermented organic trash.
The amount of alcohol fuel was measured and used to
calculate if the average family could support their energy needs using this method.
Results
After fermentation, the mashed organic garbage
contained 10 percent alcohol. Using the still, the mash was distilled to 1200
ml of 27 percent alcohol. This was distilled again for 933 ml of 39 percent
alcohol, and once more for a final 532 ml of 50 percent alcohol fuel.
Conclusions/Discussion
Using statistics from the California Energy Commission's
pamphlet "ABC's to AFV's", the experimenter compared the average
family's organic garbage output and the average household's fuel requirements
to the results of the experiment.
Calculations showed that the fuel produced from an
average family's week's worth of organic garbage could power the average
family's household for 8 days.
To recycle organic trash into alcohol fuel at a
home-based level in order to meet the average household's energy requirements.
Project by Bryce C. Caputo
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