Our hypothesis is that lemons will not do as well as the alkaline cleaner in the tests. Alkaline is used to clean messes that are related to acidic stuff. Since alkaline and acidic are on opposite sides of the PH scale they are most efficient cleaning the other. Alkaline generally has more things that it could clean, but both are successful at cleaning related tasks. Our tests are cleaning bacon grease, rust off of pennies and dried tomato paste off containers. 2/3 of the tests have a stained material that has a PH level of less than 7, meaning it was on the acidic side of the PH scale. So our alkaline cleaner will do better in the tests.

The PH scale has two different sides Acidic and Alkaline/Basic. The PH scale is a way to measure how acidic or basic something is. The PH level actually effects cleaners effectivness. Acidic cleaners are better at cleaning messes that have a higher amount of alkaline. This goes vice versa. 2/3 of our tests are a mess that have a more acidic level. Our cleaner contains sodium hydroxide, which is a strong base for an alkaline cleaner. A common alkaline cleaner is bleach. Our lemon juice is pure lemon juice, they were freshly squeezed by us. Lemon Juice has a really low PH level, meaning they're very acidic. Acids include one thing in common, and that is that they produce hydrogen ions when they get dissolved in water. Alkali's produce hydroxide ions instead of hydrogen ions.

If bleach and lemon juice (really low acidic solution) ever touch/ mix with eachother it can actually create a posionous chlorine gas. Bleach contains either sodium hydrogen or calcium hypochlorite. When either of those mix with anything acidic it creates the chlorine gas

Controlled Variable(s)

Our project has many controlled variables as it is everything that stays consistent. These variables are: temperature, time the solutions were in the stained items for, the amount of stained ingredient in the items, time the stain had to sink into, ingredient for stain (per test), exposure to sunlight, and testing environment.

Manipulated Variable(s)

Our project has 1 manipulated variable. That is what we're testing, the variables are the Vim Pure Boost, Power and Shine cleaner which was the alkaline based cleaner and the lemon juice which was our other cleaner we tested against the Vim cleaner. We had 3 tests that showed the difference in cleaning abilities of these 2 cleaners. Those tests involved cleaning rust off of pennies, cleaning bacon grease off pans, and cleaning dried tomato paste off containers.

Responding Variable(s)

The responding variables in our project was how well the Vim cleaner and the lemon juice did at cleaning off the stained material. These results are what we use to create our conclusion, and it's what we use to see the results of our experiment.

Steps for cleaning bacon grease 

Step 1: Cook 2 separate portions of bacon on a rack with a pan underneath, so when the bacon is being cooked the bacon fat can drip into the pan.

Step 2; Once the bacon is fully cooked, then you would remove the pan from underneath and let it solidify overnight.

Step 3: squeeze two ounces of lemon juice and then strain it to ensure there is no pulp.

Step 4: Wash the measuring cup thoroughly, to avoid cross contamination.

Step 5: Spray\pour 2 ounces of bleach cleaner, which contains alkaline

Step 6: Once you've completed all steps above, pour the lemon juice into one pan and the bleach cleaner in the other.

Step 7: Set a ten minute timer

Step 8: When the timer goes off, then you pour all the liquids out. However, when dumping them out, make sure not to pour them down the same drain.

Step 9: Wipe the bacon grease off with a cloth or sponge.

Steps for cleaning pennies

Step 1: Squeeze one ounce of lemon juice into a measuring cup

Step 2: Strain the lemon juice in a strainer to get rid of any unwanted pulp.

Step 3: Pour lemon juice into another cup.

Step 4: Wash the measuring cup.

Step 5: Spray/pour one ounce of bleach cleaner.

Step 6: Put the pennies into two separate cups.

Step 7: Pour the bleach cleaner into one cup and the lemon juice into the second one.

Step 8: Set a ten minute timer and wait until it ends.

Step 9: Once the timer goes off pour out the liquids in two different drains.

Step 10: Wipe the pennies with a cloth.

Steps for cleaning tomato paste on a container 

Step 1: Squeeze two ounces of lemon juice into a measuring cup.

Step 2: Do the same as before and strain the lemon juice into a cup.

Step 3: Wash the measuring cup.

Step 4: Measure two ounces of bleach cleaner.

Step 5: Put the lemon juice into one container and the bleach cleaner should be poured into the other one.

Step 6: Put on a 20 minute timer.

Step 7: Once the timer goes off, then put the liquids down separate drains.

Step 8: Wipe down the containers with a cloth or sponge.

Observations for cleaning the pennies with bleach cleaner vs lemon juice

After the ten minute timer had gone off me and my partner started to clean off the pennies. While cleaning the pennies that had been soaked in bleach cleaner, we noticed that little to no dirt came off the pennies. However, for the Pennie's that were soaked in the lemon juice, they were almost fully cleaned. Only some of the dirt stayed, but if we had let them sit for a bit longer then they would have looked brand new.

Observations for cleaning the bacon grease with bleach cleaner vs lemon juice 

When my partner and I started wiping off the bacon grease, we observed that the one that had been mixed with the lemon juice was thicker and harder to get off. Meaning that to wipe all of the grease off it took a little over 7 wipes. Though for the one that was with the bleach cleaner, it was softer than before. It didn't take as many wipes to get all of the grease off the pan, most likely around 4-5. Another observation that we noted was, when we were wiping off the grease, we had to apply more pressure for that one that was mixed with lemons.

Observations for cleaning tomato paste with bleach cleaner vs lemon juice

As we were cleaning the containers that had the tomato paste, we both noticed that they were both the same consistency, even though they were mixed with different types of liquids. That had made us think that one would be easier to clean off and one would be more difficult. However, after wiping the whole thing, surprisingly the one that the bleach cleaner was in, did better. Both containers still had tomato paste on them, but the bleach cleaner had less and was easier to clean near the end, and the one with the lemon juice was still difficult and harder to get out of the container.

After carefully observing all of our results, me and my partner saw that alkaline had did much better at cleaning, than the lemon juice. After investigative research, we figured out why each of those things had reacted that way towards the bleach and lemon juice. It was due to them being on the opposite sides of the PH scale, for example because the tomato paste is under 7, meaning that its on the acidic side of the scale, and the alkaline is basic due to it being over 7. When the cleaner and the product that you're cleaning are on the opposite sides of the PH scale, then it cleans better. Alkaline based cleaner are better at breaking down things like grease, stains, etc, because the alkaline can coalesce oils and fats, which makes it easier to rinse off. While acidic cleaning products like lemons are better at cleaning and removing things like rust, since when lemon is mixed with rusted objects. Than the acidity of the lemon would loosen up the rust because once the iron oxide in the rust, and the calcium carbonate in the lemon juice, combine then the lemon juice would begin to break down and dissolve the rust.

The question that was being answered is "Are lemons better at cleaning than alkaline based commercial cleaners?". The tests that were used showed that the alkaline cleaner did do better in the tests. From further research the effectiveness of the cleaners depends on the PH level of the mess. The tests that were used had a majority of acidic based messes, therefore it makes sense that the alkaline cleaner would be better than the lemon juice. If the tests had more alkaline based messes the lemon juice would've cleaned more of them better. People still use lemons to clean, even if there is a better option. This could be because the people who use lemons to clean know of the fact that they're a good cleaner for alkaline and are better for the environment than if they were to buy more commercial cleaners. Lemons are more sustainable for the planet as they can be composted while most commercial cleaners come in plastic containers that end up being thrown away. There is always a way for the tests to be done better, and give more accurate results. From the results from these tests this is our conclusion. In conclusion the alkaline did better in these tests, but not in general. Alkaline cleaners will work better on acidic messes, while acidic cleaners do better on alkaline messes.

With the information we have gathered it can help us in the future. Since we know that Alkaline cleaners work better in acidic based messes (and vice versa) we know which products will help us clean. This can save us money as we won't need to be spending on products that won't work on the type of mess that we have. For the acidic side of things, we know that lemons are effective for cleaning. This means that we can use lemons which are a natural product instead of purchasing an acidic cleaner. This overall helps our environment as we aren't using plastic cleaners that produce waste that most likely won't be recycled.

Our project was originally going to be a test and comparison 0f laundry detergents and the chemicals within them. As time went on this idea was forgotten and therefore we had to start new again. When we started again (beginning of february) we had decided that we were going to be testing lemons vs. cleaning supplies. We progressed with this idea of testing lemon juice mixed with other variables until it came to our small practice. When we tested to see if lemon juice mixed with anything would remove the stain from the shirt it ended up not working. Even when we washed it normally it wouldn’t remove. This problem was the turning point for our new experiment idea. We were still going with the lemons but had to change to something more do-able. Now we are testing alkaline vs. acidic cleaners, the acidic being a natural cleaner. As we did some background research before our tests we discovered a safety concern. If our alkaline cleaner had a very high bleach level and it mixed with the lemon juice it could cause a reaction that produces a poisonous chlorine gas.  2/3 of our tests were going to be conducted in separate trays/pans, there was one test that was going to be in a sink testing the cleaning capabilities for soap scum. Since we discovered the safety hazard we had to go back to the drawing board for a third test we could do. During our testing the tomato paste stains proved to be difficult to remove after being soaked in lemon juice. This slowed our testing down. While creating our title for the tri-fold it was discovered that our title stencils were too big, and we didn't have the proper colours.
 

Unlock the Cleaning Power of pH: How pH Affects Cleaning Power – Bring It On Cleaner

https://juiceradvices.com/can-you-neutralize-bleach-with-lemon-juice/

 https://www.unileverprofessional.com/uploads/products/152/8f5c2ca7bfeb1f13_1581520301.pdf

https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Honolulu_Community_College/CHEM_100%3A_Chemistry_and_Society/19%3A_Household_Chemicals/19.04%3A_All-

The Art of Mixing Bleach and Acids | Office for Science and Society - McGill University

Purpose_and_Special_Purpose_Cleaning_Products

How to use bleach and lemon juice for disinfection spray? | Hometalk

PH Of Tomato Sauce : Factors,Affect And Improvement Ideas (phscales.com)

The Benefits And Risks Of Using Bacon Grease As A Cooking Fat – Fabi And Rosi

https://youtu.be/VRt8UFI2gFU

We would like to acknowledge everyone that has helped us during this. This includes our wonderful science fair coordinator Mr. Hagen who was helping us and many others throughout the entirety of the science fair at school. He provided us with useful information about the science fair. We would also like to acknowledge our parents. They helped us purchase supplies and work through the project. All the source's that we used to conduct our research also get an acknowledgment. We would also like to thank the CYSF committee for hosting the science fair this year. It was another great experience.