Research about Sweet Potatoes and Ethanol

[mogmelon]

Hello,

I'm a freshman doing a science experiment that is due in early December (for prelims).
I am not really experienced at the science fair, even though I've done it for a while now...
I've never gotten past the school level, sadly.

This organization I joined for science fair students at my school required me to turn in 3 topics.
I just got one back approved, but I'm not sure if the teacher passed it because she thought it sounded good or if I could actually do it.
The sheet I gave to her said verbatim "The Effect of Soil Moisture on the Carbohydrate Production of the Sweet Potato".

My rough draft of the Review of Literature is due this coming Tuesday (only a few days, yipes!) and I've been hitting dead ends in research.

How would you suggest that I change the topic so it can possibly help society and be plausible for a high school student?
In my research, I've been hearing about these scientists/doctors at universities with these massive projects in the same field...
I'm not so sure how I'm supposed to carry this out.

How I got to this topic was by seeing that scientists found sweet potatoes had 2 to 3 times the carbohydrate than the corn did per acre.
This is a potential biofuel, so I wanted to see if changing some environmental factors would increase the carb output.
The main problem the researchers are battling now is the cost of producing the sweet potatoes. But I've already seen some prominent scientist in the field trying to solve the problem by injecting the potatoes with some bacteria that would do the enzyme work to itself.
This cuts down on the money it takes originally to do this step of the process.

On top of this, I don't think I have the resources to find the carb output and cultivate potatoes (that's unheard of!).

So now it sounds like all of the areas in the sweet potato/biofuel research have been taken up.
I'm really overwhelmed now, and I would appreciate help.

-Thank you,
mogmelon

[deleted-71490]

You have selected and interesting topic. The following sites will help you with background on sweet popato. The cited literature will also help you with further reading.

osuextra.okstate.edu/pdfs/F-6022web.pdf

[PDF] Sweet Potato Production in CaliforniaFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
ly 80 percent of the California production. However,. sweet potatoes can be grown nearly anywhere ... Soils selected for sweet potato production are gener- ...
anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/7237.pdf

attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/sweetpotato.html



You may have more success reviewing methods to increase ethanol recovery rather than increase carbohydrate content. These sites may be of value to you.

Energy Citations Database (ECD) - - Document #5566080Title, Recovery of protein-rich byproducts from sweet potato stillage following ... This practical method to ferment sweet potato for ethanol and to recover ...
http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/pro ... id=5566080

Energy Line sIn addition to the synthetic ethanol production from ethylene, there are three groups of ... milo, wheat, rice, potatoes, cassava, sweet potatoes, etc., and ...Show map of Managing Director, Dapodi, Pune, 411012, India
http://www.renewingindia.org/newsletter ... ol5_08.htm


TheStar.com | Business | Sweet dreamsJan 15, 2007 ... A Simcoe farmers co-op is literally letting the rot set in as it turns locally grown sweet potatoes into biogas, ethanol and electricity ...
www.thestar.com/article/171058 - 69k -

Matthew W. Mulanax, Ph.D.

[mogmelon]

Thank you.