The Results are In!

Thousands of youth reported their results nationwide after completing Biofuel Blast. The average balloon circumference after ten minutes was 8 inches which then increased to 10 inches after an hour! The largest balloon reported came in at 21.5 inches. Even more impressive, more than 70% of youth said participating in 4-H National Youth Science Day made them more interested in science! Great job to all who participated.

Top Counties Announced

Thanks to support from John Deere, a $400 award has been provided to the top county in each state and the top U.S. territory with the highest number of Biofuel Blast results submitted online. See the list of winning counties. Also, five youth were randomly selected and notified to receive an iPod and Fuel Cell Car Experiment kit. Congratulations to the recipients for an impressive effort! Read the official drawing rules.

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The 2009 Experiment was designed in conjunction with the
University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension and Wisconsin 4-H.

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Did You Know?

  • Fossil fuels are depleted at a rate that is 100,000 times faster than they are formed.


  • In 1908, Henry Ford produced the Model T as a flexible fuel vehicle. It could run on ethanol, gasoline, or a combination of the two.


  • The Energy Policy Act of 2005 ensured that gasoline contain a minimum volume of renewable fuel.


  • Today, roughly half of the gasoline sold in the United States includes 5–10% ethanol.


  • There are almost 8 million flexible fuel vehicles (FFV) on U.S. roads today, but many FFV owners don't know their vehicle is one.


  • Since 2007, the Department of Energy has announced over $1 billion in multi-year biofuels research and development projects.


  • A high-protein animal feed, known as Distiller's Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS), is produced in the process of making ethanol from corn.