Prithwis solves challenging math puzzles and plays video games for fun. He also likes to travel to learn about other cultures. He'd like to become a computer scientist: "Bill Gates is my role model."
On a trip to India, Prithwis visited a biogas plant that used cow dung as its fuel source. He learned that plant biomass can also generate biogas. He hypothesized that banana peels would yield more biogas than cow manure.
Prithwis built two fermentation devices using jars as digesters plus piping and beakers. In one jar, he placed 100 grams of finely chopped banana peels and 500 milliliters of water. In another he placed 100 grams of manure and the same amount of water. Each digester was connected to a gas-collecting chamber by a plastic pipe that measured the volume of gas. After the first week, Prithwis began recording the amount of gas made in each digester. Biogas derived from manure peaked by day 20 and fell off sharply afterward, whereas biogas from banana peels peaked by day 35. Over 60 days, the banana peels produced roughly five times as much gas as the manure.
