Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

For my annual Science Fair, I decided to make a project on making biofuel from scraps of food. I decided to use potato peels because it's cheap. So how do I turn potato peels into biofuel?

Hi there,

Great project. I'd suggest this (and its links) as a place to start: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/blog/tur ... ive-energy Of course, you should also consider doing additional background research all around the Internet for more resources.

On a project scale, you'll probably want to focus on the use of enzymes to convert plant matter to usable biofuel. This project (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ass-energy) uses the microorganisms in cow manure to facilitate the reaction from biomass to methane, whereas this project (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... es#summary) uses the cellulobiase enzyme to convert cellulose to glucose, which can then be fermented into ethanol. These are certainly not the only methods for doing this, but it should give you a place to start thinking about enzymes or bacteria to help you through your project.

–Eugene