Thirty-six students and a teacher from Toyama Prefectural University's Faculty of Engineering recently carried out "The Sunflower Project" in an effort to raise awareness of measures to combat global warming. Under this project, they grew 2,000 sunflowers on University farmland and obtained sunflower oil from 55 kilograms of harvested seeds. This oil was used at the doughnut stand at the annual community festival, and was then processed into biodiesel oil.

As part of the project, they initially aimed to generate biodiesel fuel that was carbon neutral, and they found that it was possible to obtain only 33 milliliters of oil per hour. Moreover, fossil fuels were needed during the process, making the product non-carbon neutral.

The students said that they learned about the difficulties related to energy generation and that they are now less wasteful in their daily lives. They also visited a local elementary school to share their experiences with fourth and fifth grade students in order to stress the importance of such environmental measures to the next generation.

Toyama Prefectural University official website
http://www.pu-toyama.ac.jp/english/eindex.html

Posted: 2010/09/08 06:00:15 AM

TAG Energy , University/Research institute