May 12, 2008—The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced its annual People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) competition awards among college students, that promote future technologies that are both environmentally friendly and profitable.
This national competition encourages college students to create sustainable solutions to environmental problems through technological innovation. These solutions must be environmentally friendly, efficiently use natural resources, and be economically competitive. Each P3 award winner receives funding up to $75,000 to further develop their designs and implement them in the field or move them to the marketplace.
For example, students from University of California-Davis will develop technology to produce plastic from wastewater, and Loyola University of Chicago students will construct a laboratory to produce biodiesel from their cafeteria’s vegetable oil waste.
Winners of this year’s awards and their projects are:
- Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA–A Novel Reactor Design for Efficient Production of Biodiesel from High Free-Fatty-Acid Oils
- Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, IL–Innovative Biodiesel Production: A Solution to the Scientific, Technical, and Educational Challenges to Sustainability
- University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA–Electrochemical Arsenic Remediation in Rural Bangladesh
- University of California-Davis, Davis, CA–Production of Natural Plastics in Wastewater Treatment
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL–Sustainable Water Development Program for Rural Nigeria
- University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA–Design and Testing of a Point-of-Use Electrolytic Chlorine Generator for Drinking Water Disinfection in Poor Countries
