He recently visited Washington D.C. to present a project on alternative fuel.

While most students are taking finals and looking forward to summer vacation, sophomore Jeff Pobst is working in the lab. Pobst has been working with the alliance for collaborative research in alternative fuel. Pobst's project with natural gas is a new, cheaper alternative to gasoline.

"The situation today with oil makes this project so much more important because we really need to get away from the high prices and the pollution and switching to natural gas does both," explained Pobst.

Pobst and MU Professor Peter Pfiefer's, main efforts have been working to contain the natural gas so it is convenient enough to work with regular vehicles.

"I think that's great if there's students working on that, we certainly need it," said Constance Brooks, frequent commuter.

Usually natural gas is stored in heavy-walled tanks that are about the size of a car's back seat or trunk, but with new technology the gas will be able to be stored in a much smaller tank that will fit underneath a car. It works by grinding up corn cobs and chemically treating them, making a carbon powder that is turned into briquettes. The briquettes absorb the gas, condensing it and making it possible to fit in smaller tanks.

Pobst is the only undergraduate student from the state of Missouri selected to showcase his research in Washington D.C.

The project is still being worked on, but if it goes on the market, the use of natural gas instead of gasoline and diesel would save the U.S. more than $300 billion per year.