"How would you use Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), to make life better for your family, community, state, or country?" — NM Governor's STEM Challenge Question

The Management of Waste and Reduction of Hydrocarbon Emissions by a Methanogenesis System

"New Mexico and the rest of the nation are facing a tremendous waste problem. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, “wasted food is a growing problem in our modern society” accounting that approximately “one-third of all food produced for human consumption worldwide is lost or wasted” (Sustainable Management of Food Basics). In Taos, our local recycling plant shut down, and all trash, recyclable or not, is going into the landfill. Evidently, landfills produce and release a variety of gases into our atmosphere. One extremely potent gas is methane. Our team proposes to stop trash production at one of its sources, our cafeteria. We developed a prototype that uses waste veggie biomass to create biofuel. As a result, the otherwise pollutant methane is now captured and developed into an energy source. So, not only are we fighting the trash problem at a local level, but we are also helping in the global movement to combat fossil fuel production."

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Question

"How can we limit fossil fuel production at a local level while repurposing byproducts of a methanogenesis system?" — Taos High School Team.

"Our prototype addresses the urgent need for food waste management. Current landfill practices do not support waste management and are prone to faultiness. Consequently, landfills emit harmful gases such as carbon dioxide and methane directly into the atmosphere. To efficiently and sustainably support our environment, we propose a solution to prevent food waste while simultaneously producing biofuel gas. We have successfully modeled a fuel source collection system operated by an anaerobic digestion system. Which collects and repurposes methane gas. Our prototype reduces photochemical smog (air pollution) and recycles food waste."
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"In the future, this prototype could potentially aid research in building a dimensionally dilated system capable of mass digestion and capturing abundant amounts of methane. In addition, our prototype can help derive hydrogen fuel through the sequestration of carbon from methane."

"​By using a hydrolysis reaction, our system fermented waste. The collections of Carbohydrates, fats, and enzymes (proteins) created a mixture of biomass with a perfect carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (ideal for biofuel production). During this process of fermentation, bacterial species introduced held capabilities of acetogenesis. After some time, our microbial methanogenesis system generated methane. Our biofuel derived from collected biomass will represent a renewable energy source and simultaneously manage food waste and limit hydrocarbon emissions."