Teacher Number: 791
School Name: Sherwood Heights School
Team Size: 1
software used:Notepad
Grade Category: 4-6
ProjectType: Experimental
Subject Area: Chemistry
Language: English
Team Captain First Name: Max
Team Captain Last Name: Mastalerz
Project Title: Choices We Make at the Pump
Project Abstract: We are becoming more aware of choices we can make at the pump. Some fuels are better for the environment and some are not. In this experiment I wanted to look at three choices: ethanol - which is considered a fuel of the future and not yet available in Canadian gas stations, gasoline and diesel. Petroleum based fuels such as gasoline or diesel are non-renewable, pollute the environment and could be contributing to global warming. Ethanol is renewable and can be produced from corn or sugar cane and it is less polluting. In this experiment I compared the burn duration, energy content and carbon dioxide emission of burned ethanol, gasoline and diesel. My experiment shows that Ethanol has the fastest burn time, followed by gasoline and diesel. It has the most energy content, followed by diesel and gasoline and it has the lowest emissions of CO₂ followed by gasoline and diesel. Overall, ethanol is the best, environmentally friendly option at the pump.
www.virtualsciencefair.org/2009/mast9m2