Zerina Ocanovic, from Salt Lake City, just won First Place at the school and regional level for her awesome science fair project on the potential of making Biodiesel from spent Coffee Grounds.
We were able to help Zerina with some of her research as she worked on the possibility of obtaining renewable Biodiesel from this otherwise discarded resource. Zerina did quite a bit of analysis to first see if any oil could be extracted from the coffee grounds. Then, once oil was obtained, the oil was titrated to ensure the acid content wasn’t too high (it wasn’t).
With that established, she produced several mini-batches of Biodiesel using a standard base catalyzed process. Then, the fuel was tested for quality to ensure it was indeed Biodiesel. The good news? It worked! The bad news? It took a lot of work to make it work, but it’s definitely feasible!
In addition to winning first place at the regional level, she also received awards of accommodation from the following:
US Navy, US Air Force, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Institue of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The Office of Naval Research Science, and from The National Society of Professional Engineers.
Also, this isn’t Zerina’s first go around with Biodiesel in a Science Fair Project. She’s done science fair projects on making Biodiesel from algae oil, and on the heating characteristics of Biodiesel made from different oils.
Check out the awesome story Biodiesel Magazine did on Zerina’s success!
Click here to see the story
We’re excited to see what she does next with this incredible renewable fuel and wish her the best of luck!