Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

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Reynel
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Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:39 pm
Occupation: Student

Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by Reynel »

Hi, I need help. I am trying to perform Ms. Kiara Nirghin's Google Science Fair Project of making an SAP using orange and avocado peels. As we try to follow the procedure, it has been said that in every 3 oranges you need 15ml of lemon and 100ml of distilled water and cook it for 45mins. and she was able to strain 80ml of liquid from the mixture. But, as we tried to follow her procedure, we observed that when the mixture was heated for 5 minutes the liquid started to disappear, and by 10 minutes there's no liquid left in the mixture. Therefore, we added 200ml of distilled water and boil it for 5 more minutes. And we're only able to strain at most 40ml of the liquid.
The problems are:
(1) Her procedure doesn't really make sense because there will be no liquid left after 10 mins. let alone in 45 mins., what will we do and what possible variable affected our experiment?
(2) We also tried to oven-dry our mixture but after 20 mins. in 180-degree celsius oven, our orange-avocado peels were burnt.
(3) After the oven-drying, we tried to powderize our mixture using the blender since it wasn't specified how to powderize the peels. It wasn't as fine as presented in Kiara's picture since it was the finest it could get, but the colors of our powder didn't match as what Kiara should in her ppt. Ours were more of brown-ish black, and Kiara's were white.
(4) As we tried to test its absorbency, our Orange-Avocado powder didn't turn into a gel and didn't absorb the water as much as it should be. It was just like a normal powder that is not an absorbent polymer. And the liquid that wasn't absorbed were just floating and it was a bit oily.

Ms. Kiara Nirghin's PPT: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ ... slide=id.p
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=20453&start=15


I hope you could help us. *Urgent*

Thank you for your time,
Reynel
SciB
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Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by SciB »

Hi Reynel,

Sorry to hear about the troubles you are having making the orange avocado peel SAP. I'll try to help.

You said all the liquid was being evaporated from your mixture when you heated it. Did you try reducing the heat? Scientifically, the method should have given the exact temperature to use as well as the time. It sounds like the heat was too high and maybe also the surface area of the container you used to heat the mixture was too large.

Lakshita is the person who has done the SAP preparation many times, and she could give you better advice on how to do it correctly, but I think just reducing the heating temperature would be enough to prevent excessive water loss.

Reply to my message and I will see if there's anything else I can suggest.

Good luck,

Sybee
Reynel
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Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:39 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by Reynel »

Hi Mr. Sybee,

Thank you for replying!
About the temperature, we use the lowest heat in the stove to heat the mixture, and we tried different pans to heat the mixture.
We also observed that, liquid dissolved faster in smaller container that those in the bigger one.
We also both tried
(1) to cover the mixture and observe every 5 mins.
(2) stir the mixture and not cover it at all

I would also like to ask about Ms. Lakshita's Procedure, we read her topic about making an SAP using orange peels, but from pages 5 to 6 there has been a difference in the procedure that she sent in a file and the procedure that she first conducted where she just used Ms. Kiara's and ratio it 3 times more. I would like to ask which one was her final procedure and if both of it worked for her.

We are supposed to do the experiment tomorrow or on Monday because we need to conduct our final experiment on the first week of February, test the SAP and its effect on soil, and have the results by March.


We really need your help, I hope you could.

Thank you for helping,
Reynel
lakshu_s
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Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by lakshu_s »

Hi Reynel,

Below is the procedure I used to make orange and avocado peel SAP.

The peels were removed from 19 organic oranges including as much pith as possible and finely cut.
• 100 ml of organic lemon juice, measured using a graduated beaker, was added to the orange peels and left for 2 hours.
 1000 ml of distilled water, measured using a graduated beaker, was added to the finely cut orange peels and lemon juice, and the mixture was kept on the gas stove for heating. The timer was switched on as soon as the liquid began to simmer and the time taken for the peels to be softened was noted for personal reference.
 The mixture was strained overnight using a kitchen sieve with fine wire mesh. This strained liquid was stored in a mason jar inside a refrigerator for future experimental purpose.
 Nine organic avocados were peeled, finely cut, and added to the cooked orange peels.
 The orange and avocado peel mixture was sun-dried indoors until the peels were fully dried. The total weight of the sun-dried peels was measured using a digital weighing scale and half of the weight was ground into a powder in a blender. This crushed orange and avocado peel powder served as one type of biodegradable superabsorbent polymer and was stored in a mason jar for later experiments.
 The remaining sun-dried peels were mixed with 250 ml of the strained liquid and the combined mixture was dried in a conventional oven for 15 minutes.
 The oven-dried mixture was ground into a powder in a blender. This crushed orange and avocado peel mixture served as the second biodegradable superabsorbent polymer and was stored in a mason jar for later experiments.

Hope this helps
Lakshita
Reynel
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Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:39 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by Reynel »

Hi Ms. Lakshita,

Thank you so much for the help! I can't stress this enough, but you are a very big help to us. I would like to ask, why did your procedure change from 9 avocados, 45ml of lemon juice, 300ml of distilled water to the present one which uses 19 oranges, 100ml of lemon juice, and 1000ml of distilled water?

We will be conducting the experiment tomorrow, thank you for this information. Also, goodluck with your SAP Project too! I hope you and Mr. Sybee are both safe! I hope you could respond to us again.

Thank you for your time,
Reynel
Reynel
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:39 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by Reynel »

Hi Ms. Lakshita,

I would also like to ask about the degree celsius of the conventional oven that you used for 15 minutes, and did you pre-heat it? I hope you could respond.

Thank you so much,
Reynel
lakshu_s
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Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by lakshu_s »

Hi Reynel,

Yes I pre-heated it and used at 350 (normal bake temperature)

Thanks,
Lakshita
Reynel
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Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:39 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by Reynel »

Hi Ms. Lakshita,

I must assume it is in degree Fahrenheit. Thank you so much for your help, you really did a big help in our project! I hope you'll stay safe and be successful in the project you are conducting, too!

Sincerely,
Reynel
Reynel
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:39 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by Reynel »

Hi Ms. Lakshita and Mr. Sybee,

I am sorry to bother you again but there came a problem while we are conducting the project. We somehow "overcooked" our orange peels and only got for now a 180ml of strained liquid. But, we are still straining it overnight so we expect to get atmost of 200ml. It was said in Ms. Lakshita's procedure that she will be adding 250ml of liquid in the mixture to be oven-dried. So, we assumed that we are supposed to strain about 250ml of the liquid from the mixture.
(1) Is it still okay if we are only able to get 180ml of liquid even though you were able to get 250ml of liquid?
(2) Will it affect the result of our project?
I hope you could help us, your help is very much needed.

Thank you so much,
Reynel
Pk1234
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Joined: Sun Jan 24, 2021 7:13 am
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Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by Pk1234 »

Hey, Reynel
Did you able make orange peel/ avocado SAP
lakshu_s
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Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2016 11:48 am
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Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by lakshu_s »

Hi Reynel,

I guess that should be ok to use 200 ml of strained liquid.

Thanks,
Lakshita
Reynel
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:39 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by Reynel »

Hi Ms. Lakshita,

Thank you so much for the response, I hope both of our projects will be successful!

Hoping you are safe there,
Reynel
Reynel
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:39 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by Reynel »

Hi,

We are now starting to sun-dry our Orange and Avocado peels, we are yet to make an SAP product.

Reynel
Pk1234
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Joined: Sun Jan 24, 2021 7:13 am
Occupation: Student

Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by Pk1234 »

Hi, Reynel
Any Progress , how much time it will take to sun dry peels?
Reynel
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:39 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: Help! Procedure in Making SAP Using Orange and Avocado.

Post by Reynel »

Good day, Sir.

Our peels take 14 days to dry under the sun. We're on our 7th day today and we need to wait another 7 days for the peels to fully dry.

Reynel
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