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Corn versus Sugarcane use for the production of Ethanol Fuel- a Lab Experiment

Introduction

The current controversy over the use of food crops to produce fuel provides a new way to engage students in learning some important biological concepts. Biofuels, such as ethanol made from corn or sugarcane and biodiesel made from soybeans, may represent a means for the United States to reduce dependence on imported oil and cut greenhouse gas emissions. (Barrett: 11) In his 2007 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush announced a national goal to increase U.S. consumption of biofuels from the current 5 billion gallons per year to as much as 35 billion gallons per year by 2017. (Campoy: 12) This amount of biofuel could substitute for as much as 10% of U.S. gasoline supplies. President Obama pledged support for the cornbased ethanol biofuel industry during the 2008 campaign, and his administration has moved to increase ethanol production and use through a series of coordinated policy measures. (Baker: 51) However, serious concerns about ethanol as biofuel have been raised by scientists, environmentalists, and legislators. (Fialka: 44) This paper presents a laboratory experiment that involves students in a hands-on investigation of the biology of ethanol production and the related economic and environmental policy issues.

We developed this exercise for first-year, mostly non-science majors in an interdisciplinary college course, Solving Environmental Problems. The course takes an integrative approach to examine the science, economics, public policy, and business aspects of environmental issues, is discussion-oriented and writing-intensive, and has a laboratory component. We used this laboratory in a unit of the course that focused on climate change and alternative energy. We introduced the experiment covering the basics of climate change and discussing a case study about automobiles of the future that illustrates broader policy issues regarding the automobile industry (Kline: 75-84) . The relevance of this experiment and its use of inexpensive equipment and readily available materials make it suitable for use in high school environmental science and biology courses, as well as in college -level courses.

In the experiment, students compare the biological efficiency of the first step of the ethanol fuel production process, fermentation, for two important raw materials, corn and sugarcane, as well as for some raw materials of their choosing. (Pimentel: 65-76) After analyzing the data on fermentation rates, students are asked to consider government policy regarding ethanol in light of their own results, as well as with respect to the potential economic and environmental impacts of ethanol. The learning objectives of the exercise are described in Figure 1.

Materials and Methods

We present suggestions for the timetable of the entire exercise in Table 2. After contemplating the issues surrounding ethanol and filling out the worksheet (Table 1), the students work in small groups to develop a plan for an experiment comparing fermentation rates of corn and sugarcane.

The teacher should ask the students to devise the research hypothesis for their planned experiment. An example hypothesis is that different materials will vary in their rate ...