Energy Conversion

Project Description

Our group created a device capable of propelling potatoes through the use of homemade potato-based fuel. Our first step was to ferment and distill potatoes into an alcohol capable of being combusted in the form of ethanol. Next we built a cannon out of PVC pipes capable of containing and directing the reaction appropriately. This cannon was made of a barrel, combustion chamber, and fuel chamber. A potato was loaded into the barrel, our homemade fuel was sprayed into the fuel chamber to aerosolize it, then an electric lighter, sticking out of the combustion chamber, was used to combust the fuel, propelling the potato forward. Most of our testing was done with a smaller cannon, however a larger model was built capable of shooting an entire potato across a baseball field.

What We Learned

Production of Alcohol: Our team learned the process of fermenting potatoes with the addition of enzymes, then the process of distillation through separating the byproducts from the desired alcohol. We also learned the utility of multi-step distillation to remove the unwanted methanal from the ethanal, yielding a cleaner product.

Energy Transfers: This is the process of energy converting from one type to another. For our project we started with electric and heat energy when the lighter was pressed, converting to chemical energy when the reaction happened, and finally turning into mechanical energy as the potato was pushed forward and out of the barrel.

Modifications: We learned how to make multiple prototypes and problem solve so that our device would work as well as possible. Some modification we went through was testing different types of fuels, both commercial and home brewed, along with testing different sizes of cannons.