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P3 Student Design Competition

2015 P3 Award Winners

Award Winners | Honorable Mentions

2015 Award Winners

Institution EPA Grant Number Project Title Project Description
Appalachian State University SU835695 Biomass Greenhouse-Heating Systems to Extend Growing Seasons for Resource-Limited Farmers This grant request focuses on one aspect of a holistic approach to best practices for agriculture, water, energy, waste management, and community.
Case Western Reserve University SU835697 An Ultra-Affordable Pedal Generator for Low Load Applications Our innovative idea is an ultra-affordable device with which one can comfortably transform human energy to electricity for low-load (~1 W) applications.
Embry - Riddle Aeronautical University SU835690 Diesel Emissions Test Stand to Improve Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) The goal of this proposal is to reduce Diesel emissions by improving Diesel after-treatment effectiveness generally and for Diesel hybrid electric vehicles in particular. The challenge to sustainability is the need for sustainable transportation while protecting the environment. Increasing CAFÉ fuel economy requirements combined with challenging EPA NOx emissions requirements will result in a larger percentage of Diesel engines in the light duty market.
Michigan State University
Technological Institute of Costa Rica
SU835720 Integrating Water and Energy Engineering with Ecotourism in a Costa Rican Aboriginal Community This project aims to develop an integrated water-wastewater-energy system for ecotourism development in Costa Rica lead by the Shuabb Aborigine Women Association.
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry SU835723 Developing a Vacuum Distillation – Acid Absorption System for Recovery of Ammonia from Dairy Manure Our goal is to develop an innovative technology coupling vacuum distillation and acid absorption for sustainable recovery of ammonia from both anaerobically digested and undigested dairy manure.
University of Tulsa SU835724 Developing a Wireless Device for Monitoring Water Usage for Hotel Showers The proposed work aims to develop a novel low cost wireless device for monitoring water use from hotel guest room showers.
Western Washington University SU835704 Smart Solar Windows – A Step Towards Carbon Neutral Buildings The goal of this project is to develop and demonstrate a new, cost-effective smart window technology combining a transparent photovoltaic solar concentrator with wireless electronics to both produce power and reduce HVAC building loads within an existing building footprint.

2015 P3 Honorable Mentions

Institution EPA Grant Number Project Title Project Description
Arizona State University SU835686 Building Integrated Solar Thermal Electric Generation (BISTEG) This project investigates a new device for generating electricity from sunlight. The proposed research will build an experimental prototype and establish: 1) the solar conditions under which the technology generates electricity, 2) thermodynamic efficiency and cost, and 3) the most effective thermoelectric materials.
Arizona State University
Northern Arizona University
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
SU835706 Community-Scale Gasification and Biochar Retort Hubs for Rural Areas: A “Closed Loop” System for Sustainable Agriculture and Bioenergy In response to the need for interdisciplinary studies integrating appropriately-scaled economic, social, and environmental feasibility assessment, we propose to develop screening-level metrics to evaluate the role physical, biological, operational, and economic factors of biochar and power co-generation play in advancing the deployment of rural community-scale gasification hubs.
Austin Community College SU835726 Evaluation and Expansion of Solar Disinfection Method for Reclaimed Residential Greywater Students will study solar disinfection (SODIS) of greywater for reuse in irrigation with the goal of designing a robust, efficient, effective, low-cost, low energy-requiring, and nontoxic system for residential use.
Cornell University SU835715 Application of Foam Filtration to Water Treatment for Rapid Emergency Response Our plan is to design a community-sized foam filtration water treatment system.
Indiana University SU835714 Water Quality and Hydrologic Performance of Stormwater Control Berms. Part of the Indiana University RAIN (Restorative Adaptations for Infrastructure) Initiative In determining site-specific design and performance metrics and cost-effectiveness, field scale performance data is needed to assess the hydrologic function of design elements. The proposed design approaches this challenge through the installation and performance measurements of four “weep” berms and 120 filter berms.
Johns Hopkins University
Clean Green Chesapeake
Van Ert, Nemoto and Associates Consulting
HydroMentia
SU835717 Sustainable Algal Biofuels Solution: Sourcing Carbon and Recycling Nutrients from Waste Treatment Processing This research program addresses sustainability of both energy production and water treatment by applying an innovative three-stage process that utilizes waste run-off as nutrients to generate sugar-rich substrates for generation of advanced liquid biofuels through enhanced algal bioprocessing.
Michigan Technological University SU835692 Developing a Guide for Harnessing Low-grade Geothermal Energy from Minewater for Heating and Cooling Buildings The goal of this project is evaluate the technical and social feasibility of tapping water in abandoned mines for geothermal heating and cooling. Geothermal heating and cooling systems are regarded as the most efficient and an environmentally benign alternative to burning fossil fuels, which emit air pollution and contribute to climate change.
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University SU835712 Floating Island on a Roof for Rainwater Management Our objective is to reduce runoff from roofs, and provide biological diversity in urban areas.
Northern Kentucky University SU835703 Clearing the Air: APPlying Informatics to Reduce Traffic Congestion in Greater Cincinnati Our goal is to reduce vehicle miles traveled by increasing transit use and carpooling in the Greater Cincinnati region.
Stanford University SU835718 Sustainable Sanitation Solutions for Low-Income Urban Households To address the challenges of density, poverty, limited water access, and the often informal status of these communities, we are developing a portable waterless, urine-diverting household toilet with sealable, removable and reusable cartridges that enables safe removal of human waste.
University of California - Davis SU835688 Enrichment of Microbial Communities for Biogas Production in High-Solids Environments We propose laboratory experiments to enrich, characterize, and preserve a microbial community capable of high-solids anaerobic digestion (AD) for biorenewable methane production from manure. Use of methane generated via AD has the ability to reduce carbon emissions from fossil-fuel-based energy production by offsetting use of fossil fuels.
University of California - Riverside SU835702 NOx-Out – Selective Catalytic Reduction System for Emission Control of Small Off-Road Engines The NOx-Out prototype is designed to be an inexpensive selective catalytic reducer (SCR) which can be retrofitted to any small off-road engine (SORE) for the reduction of harmful emissions.
University of Connecticut SU835705 Environmentally Friendly Flame Retardants Based on Inorganic Nanosheets Because of the significant environment and health issues of many flame retardants currently on market, the objective of this project is to develop a cost effective environmentally friendly flame retardant based on inorganic nanosheets.
University of Florida SU835719 Prevention of Pharmaceutical Water Pollution by Urine Source Separation and Treatment The goal of this P3 Project is evaluate the efficacy of using adsorption to remove pharmaceuticals from source-separated human urine.
University of Massachusetts - Lowell SU835710 Green Nanosolder Paste for Next-Generation Electronics Assembly and Manufacturing This project focuses on developing a green lead-free and halogen-free nanosolder paste by using Sn/Ag/Cu (SAC) nanoparticles to replace the conventional solder paste, which is composed of toxic and hazardous materials, including micron sized tin-lead solder balls and halogen-based flux material.
University of North Carolina at Charlotte SU835701 Sustainable Responsivity: The Integration of Nanosolar Skin for Built Environment and Mobility This proposal is an interdisciplinary research project that focuses on the study of integrating next generation nanoscale solar skin in order to reduce the solar heat gain and glare while producing electricity.
University of St Thomas SU835725 Adaptation of Hydroponics to Remove Excess Phosphorus from Urban Lakes Our proposal explores the potential to use hydroponic vegetable production to remove excess P from Como Lake in Saint Paul, MN, while generating an economically viable product and providing a unique product for public outreach.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute SU835699 Self-healing Coatings for Steel-reinforced Infrastructure This proposal focuses on developing, for the first time, self-healing coatings for rebar.