A new experiment is taking place in Bio-Technical Engineering, and it’s not just something high school students are working on. They’re making bio-tech reactors for an alternative fuel source.

“The whole premise is that teachers often teach how to do research but haven’t done research, so I worked with the algae bio fuels people at KU and the idea of the was to have teachers be able to bring some of the research back so it can be worked with,” said Bio-Technical Engineering teacher Scott Sharp.

The bio-tech class is growing algae to research alternative fuel options.

“We’re doing the same thing that undergraduate are researching at KU. They are trying to get algae to grow as fast as they can while making it grow a lot of fat. The fat is needed for the biofuel because it can be synthesized into something that can be burnt in a fuel tank,” senior Aaron Garza said.

The process used to synthesize biofuel from the lipids in algae is similar to the process used to make corn sugars into ethanol. The research DHS students have worked on may even be beneficial to undergraduate students researching the same process.

The photo-bio reactor requires three components: light, a carbon dioxide and oxygen mixture and a medium to grow in. Students here researched the best way to get algae to grow quickly.

Students at KU have taken interest in Garza’s design model, showing how even high school students can do big things.

The Algae Biomass Organization predicts that in the year 2018, if granted production taxes, algae fuel will be equal in price to fossil fuels.

The bio-tech class is funded by Project Lead the Way, which provides the curriculum for the engineering classes. The research being done in the class is funded by the National Science Foundation.

The algae growth experiment demonstrates the possible capability of high school students working on things that can be beneficial to humanity, and a person is never too young to make a great discovery.