http://planetsave.com/2013/04/17/teen-made-biofuel-in-her-bedroom/
Teen Made Biofuel In Her Bedroom
April 17, 2013 Jake Richardson
Biofuels have an enormous appeal – at least relative to petroluem –
because they produce less climate change emissions and could be produced
domestically, therefore reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The
knock against biofuels is that they are too expensive to produce. (Even
biodiesel made from waste vegetable oil can be found in some
metropolitan areas, but it can cost about $1 a gallon more than
conventional gasoline.)
Seventeen-year-old Sara Volz tried a different way of producing
high-yield algae cells. She used a herbicide to kill the low-yield cells
to create a community of cells that are higher producing. These cells
then only can replicate from cells that produce more. Eventually,
through successive cell iterations, she generated a community of
very-high yield cells. The cost of her herbicide method is much lower
than some of the other biofuel production strategies.
Volz set up her home lab under her bed with flasks and microscopes. Her
interest in biofuels goes back to ninth grade due to her enthusiasm for
biochemistry and alternative energy. For her efforts and insight, she
won the Intel Science Talent Search and a $100,000 scholarship. The
scholarship money will help her when she becomes an undergraduate at MIT
soon.
In specific terms, producing biofuels like ethanol employ about 200,000
Americans according to a Cornell University document. About two billion
dollars a year is saved by using ethanol, rather than importing foreign oil.
Using biofuels creates less air pollution, and contributes to climate
change less. Biodiesel also is very hard to set on fire and is
relatively non-toxic, compared to regular diesel, so spills are not as
damaging to the environment.
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