CANOLA OIL BIO DIESEL By Matt, Tiff and Mackenzie

OUR IDEA Our idea is to replace normal fuels such as diesel and unleaded fuels with bio diesel made from canola plants, methanol and sodium hydroxide.

WHAT IS BIO DIESEL? Bio Diesel is a clean burning and renewable fuel source that is either made from recycled cooking oil, soybean oil and animal fats. Bio Diesel can be used in any car that already has a diesel engine in it.

HOW LEGIT IS THIS IDEA? With the research from our team members we have concluded that if australia filled its farm lands with canola plants, every days australia alone could produce up to 163,372,893,000 litres of bio diesel. In fact the average australian would receive 7203 litres per harvest, which turns into 107,513 kilometres per harvest they could drive(on the average fuel consumption 6.7l/100km).

OUR IDEA INTO WORK To reach that whopping amount of 107,513 km per harvest we needed to research some numbers. Firstly we needed to find how much farming land mass was on australia, we found out that 61% of australian land mass was farming land(4,692,134 square kilometres) Next we had to research how many plants to put in each square metre of land, it said to put 70 per square metre.

Next we calculated how many square metres in a square kilometre, 1,000,000 square metres to a square kilometre. After that we found that every square kilometre we could put 70,000,000 canola plants. Next i had to times that number by the farming land mass (4,692,134) which equaled 328,449,380,000,000(whatever that number is). Next we had found that only 50% of the crops survive and flower at the end, so we had to half that number to get the final number at the end of the harvest season, which equaled 164,224,690,000,000.

After that we calculated how much seeds in kg we would actually produce at the end of a harvest which is 492,674,070,000kg. We got that number because each seed weighs 3-6 grams, so we took the lowest number which was 3 and multiplied 164,224,690,000,000 by 3 and then divided it by 1,000 to get to kg. (this is the calculation if each plant gives out 1 seed) Next we figured out how much canola oil we could get out of this harvest, it is 214,206,110,000 litres of oil, we got this number because to every 2.3kg of seed there is 1 litre of oil, so we just divided 492,674,070,000 by 2.3 and got the answer.

Now this is how we actually turn the oil into bio diesel fuel. To turn the oil into fuel you need to have a few items, (this is the measurement to 1 litre of oil) 3.5 grams of sodium hydroxide and 200ml of methanol. First you need to put methanol into mixer and slowly add sodium hydroxide, you mix until the sodium hydroxide has dissolved, after that you add in the canola oil. After it has mixed for minutes on slow you pour it into a jug and let it settle for a couple of hours, the top layer is bio diesel and the bottom layer is gylcerin. Each mixture makes an approx 800ml of bio diesel fuel.

Next we had to calculate how much bio diesel would could actually get out of the mixture if 1litre of oil turns into 800ml of bio diesel. All we had to do is multiple 214,206,110,000 by.8 and we got 163,372,893,000 litres of bio diesel.

Now with the final numbers on how much bio diesel we could produce, all we had to do is find how much every australian got and the fuel consumption. So first we got the population of australia, 22,680,000 people, then divided the amount of fuel by it and got the average fuel handout to each australian, which equals 7203 litres of fuel. Next we had researched the average fuel consumption of an Australian and it was 6.7l/100km. So to get how many kilometres a single person could get out of the average amount was easy, all we did was divide the 7203 litres by 6.5 and then times that by 100. Which equals 107,513 kilometres.

Dear Tony Abbott, We know that you are an extremely busy man but we can't disregard the fact that a fuel crisis is bound to happen and we would like to make you aware of it. Therefore, we wrote this letter to suggest to you some ideas that we would like for you to take into consideration. We have noticed a decline in the quantity of fuel and the consumption of fuel is rising around Australia. We predict that we would eventually run dry of resources such as fossil fuels and, when worse comes to worse, we could then run into a fuel crisis. We have thought of some ideas on how we can save fuel and also create a new and more efficient fuel source.

We would like to encourage people to look for other alternative fuel source. If they live on a farm then maybe they would like to consider wind powered electricity or hydro powered electricity. A good fuel source that is available all over the continent is canola plants. We could plant a large quantity of them and they can create enough fuel to power cars and homes. We can get the oil from the plants and distribute this to every household and we could ask every homeowner to plant their own canola plants and they could have a self sustaining fuel source. We have worked out that if we plant canola plants over the farming land there is in Australia, then we would produce enough plants and in turn, enough oil so that each Australian would get around 7,200 litres of bio fuel each harvest. Harvest time is about 3 times a year so that tells us that each Australian would get approximately 21,600L of bio fuel each year. This is more than enough needed to power cars because with all this oil, they could travel about 321,000km each year if they wanted to! Canola plants are very easy to acquire and they are cheap so using them as a fuel source is a solid plan. Although they don't give a lot of oil, if we plant on a massive scale then we can have more than enough for the whole country!

In fish and chip shops, fast food restaurants and other various shops which use a deep fryer, they use a good amount of oil but instead of doing something with the excess, they just throw it out. This is a waste of Oil, therefore we think that we could collect this extra oil and use it as fuel to power our cars and some electrical appliances. This, plus the growing of canola plants, could really help combat the impending fuel crisis and add to the amount of fuel people get.

You could also introduce some laws about energy use. One law that would be useful would be that no lights are allowed to be turned on until an appropriate time. Maybe between the hours of 5:30am and 6:00pm no lights are to be used. This could be vital towards cutting down energy use. You could also enforce laws about how much electricity each household could be allocated. For example, each person could be allowed 5-6 hours of electricity or something along those lines.

We could distribute seeds to every household and then the home owners could grow their own plants and convert the plant into canola oil. They could then use this for a fuel source and power their own car, home and various appliances. We could have canola fields on a gigantic scale and we could harvest them when they are ready then deliver the canola oil on a monthly basis to all homeowners so that they have fuel. Each house could have a large tank from which they take and store their oil so that they can use it. We would also like to make everyone aware of this in case of a fuel crisis. There fore we must prepare ourselves. What are some ways? Take all of these ideas into consideration to enforce laws about Limiting ourselves to fuel, and finding an alternative fuel source to support us and our families. Thank you for your time and we hope that you take these ideas with you to your next meeting.

PROS, CONS Pros: only costs around 60-70cper 1litre of fuel to make (excluding transport and electrify bill) Fast and easy way to get fuel Better for the environment Cons: where to store all the oil, would eventually run out of sodium hydroxide and methanol. Only power a diesel car

RESOURCES pdf contents/chapter-3-growth-stages/growth-stages establishment/seeding-rate/

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