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Reaction Analysis with Colorimetric Measurement of Starch Solution

CSEF · 2023 Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology Third Award

Bose Ronak · 7

Overview

Ethanol is a renewable, domestically produced transportation fuel. Overall, the transportation sector accounts for approximately 30% of total U.S. energy needs and 70% of U.S. petroleum consumption. Using ethanol and other alternative fuels and advanced technologies to reduce fuel consumption continues to strengthen national security and reduce transportation energy costs. In order to maximize the production of ethanol, the reaction of starch and enzyme must be controlled. Ethanol is primarily made from corn and amylase is an enzyme that breaks down starch in the corn into sugars. I wanted to see if corn starch hydrolysis with amylase enzyme can be controlled by temperature and secondly if the absorbance of the red-yellow light through a spectrophotometer will reduce after the starch has been fully hydrolyzed. I made a spectrophotometer at home and used graduated cylinder, thermometer, corn starch, salivary amylase, iodine solution, trays and safety goggles to carry out my experiment. Based on my experiments I observed that there is an optimal temperature for the starch to hydrolyze with salivary amylase. At lower temperature it took a long time for the starch to convert to glucose and the best results were around 40° Celsius. At higher temperature, the hydrolysis process slowed down. The colorimetry readings were set at 635 nanometer as the iodine is reddish-yellow in color. At 635 nanometers all reddish-yellow light is reflected, and all other colors absorbed.

Source coverage

This record comes from a published award list, not a complete project archive. Its abstract comes from CSEF's public project showcase as archived by the Internet Archive before judging (https://web.archive.org/web/20230401224130/https://ca-csef.zfairs.com/showcase/ShowcaseInfo?f=838e60b7-ea75-46e8-865c-fde4864244b3); the version presented may differ.

Awards (1)

Competition history

  • CSEF 2023 Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology · Entry J0505

Resources

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