The Blanchester High School students finished the year with a unit on sustainability and green chemistry. The class completed the “Biodiesel: Soybeans as an Energy Feedstock” lesson by comparing the burn quality of the soy biodiesel they had produced. Exactly 2.0 grams of each team’s biodiesel was burned and the students observed whose flame burned for the longest time. They also compared its burn quality, i.e. energy output and smokiness, to petro biodiesel and to soy vegetable oil.
The eternal (well, not quite!) flame
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