FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
April 25, 2012
EPA Awards More Than $1 Million to College Teams
for Innovative Environmental Solutions
WASHINGTON
– The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded more than $1 million in grants to
15 university and college teams from across the country who participated in the
8th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in
Washington, D.C. for their innovative environmental
solutions. EPA’s People,
Prosperity and the Planet (P3) award competition was held at the expo, and
featured more than 300 college innovators showcasing their sustainable projects
designed to protect the environment, encourage economic growth and use natural
resources more efficiently. Some P3 team projects include a new process that
uses spinach to capture and convert the sun’s energy to electricity and a
partnership with a local landfill to design a process that uses waste heat and
drainage to grow algae for biodiesel production.
Following an
initial peer review process, this year’s winners were selected from 45 competing
teams after two days of judging by a panel of national experts convened
to
provide recommendations to the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. EPA selected
the
award-winning projects from the most
competitive pool of teams ever, basing their decisions on the potential to
provide innovative, cutting-edge sustainable solutions to worldwide
environmental problems.
“The
competition and expo are not only about EPA’s prestigious P3 award, but also
about supporting the next generation of this country’s innovators and
entrepreneurs who are entering the environmental and public health field with
passion to make a difference and many brilliant ideas,” said Lek Kadeli, acting
assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Research and Development. “The
P3 program gives these students the opportunity to bring those ideas to
realization and many have the potential to make significant impacts on our
nation’s sustainable future and development of environmental
technologies.”
Each P3
award-winning team will receive a grant of up to $90,000 to further develop
their design, apply it to real world applications or move it to the marketplace.
Previous P3 award winners have started successful businesses and are marketing
the technologies in the U.S. and around the world.
Winners of this
year’s awards include:
•
Appalachian State University for developing an artificial wetland suitable for
recycling of grey water from small businesses for immediate reuse.
• Butte
College for developing structural insulated panels for building construction
using rice hulls, an abundant agricultural waste, as the primary raw
material.
•
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for designing a foldable solar power water
purification system that can fit into a backpack for easy transport for use
after a disaster affecting drinking ether supply.
• Gonzaga
University for developing a simple ventilation system for kitchens in rural
dwellings using electrical power generated from thermoelectric cells driven by
waste heat from cooking fires.
•
Oregon State University for raising awareness of pollution associated with the
production and use of plastic mulch by farmers and testing alternative
biodegradable mulch material.
• Princeton
University for developing, testing and deploying an electricity generation
system that can be transported in a standard shipping container and rapidly set
up in rural communities and post disaster areas.
• Santa
Clara University for developing a fuel cell capable of continuous sustainable
energy supply to meet energy demands in rural communities in developing nations
lacking reliable energy grids.
•
Southern
Illinois University - Carbondale for developing methods to extract (recycle)
metals from Coal Combustion Byproducts (CCB) to reduce mining and to produce a
concrete with reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
• SUNY
College of Environmental Science and Engineering for studying ways to recover
struvite, a slow release fertilizer, from digested animal manures and assesses
its marketability.
• Texas
State University - San Marcos for converting rice husks, a byproducts of
agriculture, into a starter material called lignocellulose for producing
fabrics, biofuel and silica nanoparticles.
•
University of California - Riverside for designing a solar collector to heat
ambient air for use in home appliances, such as clothes dryers and space
heaters, to reduce home energy consumption.
•
University of Cincinnati for developing a pilot scale system to convert trap
grease from restaurants, a waste set to landfill, to renewable
biodiesel.
•
University of Connecticut for investigating ways to use local industrial
byproducts such as steal slag and lime kilm dust to control erosion and to
stabilize roads in Nicaragua.
•
University of Oklahoma - Norman for design, field-test, construct, instrument,
analyze and document a habitat for humanity house built of compresses earth
blocks (CEB).
•
Vanderbilt University for developing a biohyrid solar panel that substitutes a
protein from spinach for rare metals (mined) and is capable of producing
electricity.
Honorable
Mention winners of this year’s competition include:
•
Christian
Brothers University for developing technologies to improve energy efficiency in
the building envelope of residencies in Memphis, Tennessee, that focus on the
thermal properties of materials, fire safety, material stability and
cost.
•
Clarkson University for studying the feasibility of using waste heat and
leachate from a solid waste management facility for energy to produce biodiesel
from algae.
•
Drexel University for designing a pilot-scale reactor for local landfill that
uses algae to produce biofuels from landfill leachate and gas.
• Purdue
University for designing, building and installing affordable ram pumps in Haiti
to improve the availability of water for its citizens.
•
Rochester Institute of Technology for designing a hydrofoil system that harvests
energy from a river while minimizing the harmful effects that dams create for
river flow and sediments.
•
Santa Clara University for developing a high efficiency solar absorber/exchanger
that can bring low cost energy to urbanites who have limited space for solar
collectors.
•
Southern Illinois University -Edwardsville for evaluating the use of
selenium-polluted plant waste materials harvested from phytoremediation sites to
produce selenium-enriched edible mushrooms.
•
University of Texas at Austin for designing, constructing and testing
vermicomposting (composting with worms) bins to improve public health in the
Dominican Republic by reducing water contamination from organic
waste.
•
University of California - Davis for designing and monitoring an affordable
green roof technology that uses the shading from plant to cool roof surfaces and
reduce peak electricity demand by up to 75 percent.
•
Missouri University of Science and Technology for developing a control system
that opens and closes windows to maximize natural ventilation and save energy by
sensing differencing in outdoor and indoor climate conditions.
•
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for creating and implementing a
point-of-view disinfectant for drinking water that is cheap, non-toxic and
effective in reducing waterborne illness in developing nations.
Each year, the
National Sustainable Design Expo features EPA’s P3 competition while also
highlighting and exhibiting other sustainable initiatives, programs and
technologies developed and implemented by nonprofit organizations, government
and state agencies. This year’s expo was co-sponsored by the American Society of
Civil Engineers, Engineers without Borders-USA, Engineering for
Change and
the
Association for
the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
P3 teams
were also recognized earlier this week during EPA’s American Innovation for
Sustainability Forum, an event bringing together sustainability and innovation
leaders nationwide. The U.S. Army recognized three teams for projects that fit
the Army’s NetZero initiative. The team from University of Texas at Austin
received recognition for Zero Waste for their use of vermicomposting to reduce
solid waste. Embry Riddle Aeronautical University developed a lightweight solar
powered battery backup water purification system that reflects the Army’s Zero
Water efforts. University of California at Davis was recognized for their cool
roofs project promoting Zero Energy. Additionally, the Paladin Capital Group
recognized Vanderbilt University’s project working on solar cells with the
“Marketplace Innovation Award.”
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