John Douglas plays piano, trumpet, and guitar and competes in swimming and track as an outlet for his energy. He also creates his own computer games and dabbles in art. While he remains undecided about a future career, one thing is certain: "I wouldn't choose something just for the money."
To do his part to fight global warming, John Douglas decided to investigate a way to improve efficiency in making ethanol. Because bananas and sugarcane are abundant in his state, he was able to obtain leftover quantities of both foods from the local markets for testing purposes. He hypothesized that sugarcane would make a better ethanol source than bananas.
John Douglas collected ample amounts of both foods and used yeast to brew equal-size batches of each in separate containers for a week and half. He strained out the biomass with a sieve. Next he built a distillery using a kettle, copper tubing, cork, a thermometer, and sealant. John Douglas distilled each batch three times, recording the final alcohol content of each. The sugarcane rendered an alcohol content close to 80 percent, whereas the banana content was closer to 45 percent.
