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Lab Synthesis Essay

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After the completion of the series of labs we were tasked with, we have discovered numerous things about what substance would be the best biofuels and biofuel alternatives. In lab 1, we germinated 150 radish seeds on filter paper within different Petri dishes. For my group, we were asked to use the substance of Ethanol in concentrations, 10%, 5%, 2.5%, 1.25%, 625% and the last dish being filled with deionized water. Out of these concentrations, we can tell that ethanol doesn’t cause much germination and doesn’t greatly affect the environment. However, when compared to the N- Butanol Ethanol isn’t the healthiest alternative out of the three we tested for these labs, it was a close measurement but the N-Butanol is a healthier alternative for …show more content…

Even though soybean oil has a lower melting and freezing point than canola, soybeans have a very high concentration of saturated fats which in a way cancels out the benefit of the substance’s low freezing point. When fat levels are high the performance in colder weather starts to disappoint. However, in Canola oil, the saturated fat levels are very low meaning that even with its higher freezing point, its performance will outshine Soybean oil. The fat content also affects the synthesis of creating biofuel out of these two. Canola is a cheaper and quicker option compared to Soybean because the cleaning steps are not as extensive and more effective. Furthermore, Canola also has a much higher efficiency due to its high oil content (43% compared to 18%). Furthermore, in regards to toxic emissions, Canola releases fewer hydrocarbons, toxic compounds, carbon monoxide and particulate matter than Soybean oil. It is due to canola oil already being 10% oxygen simply by weight, while Soybean doesn’t have an oxygen weight concentration close to 7%. Then in total Soybean oil is much more expensive to buy, especially when Canola can perform better at a much lower

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