Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I was thinking of using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to see its possibilities as a biofuel, but would that make a good science fair experiment? I would need to be able to find a way to test exactly how much hydrogen it's producing, but I'm not finding any answers online...

If that's too complicated for a high schooler, I was thinking about "A comparison of hard water, soft water, and reverse osmosis" except I don't have any ideas of what to compare each one to.

Thank you so much!

Hi,

I moved your topic to the Life Sciences forum where more experts with bio background will see it -- they can give you some advice about using that particular organism. If you decide to investigate osmosis and water hardness, Physical Sciences would be the best place for advice.

Best wishes,
Amanda

HI,

Biofuels are such an important new research topic. You can learn alot from a project in a new area such as this. I don't know of any way for you to measure the hydrogen production directly (papers I saw when looking indicate there is a special equipment for that).... don't let that discourage you from this topic.

Science Buddies has two projects relating to exploring biofuels. The easier one is here - https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p030.shtml, but I think someone in your age group might find the harder one more interesting: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p038.shtml

I hope you like one of these, but let me know if you don't, and want some help exploring the water comparisons.

Have fun!
Tonya

Thank you so much for all your help! Except...I decided to change my topic...sorry!! But the experiment about turning plants into biofuel sounds really interesting, and maybe I'll do it next year!