UC Team Comes Close In EPA Competition

When hundreds of the nation’s best and brightest college students gathered on Washington D.C.’s National Mall recently, a UC team was among them. They were there courtesy of the Environmental Protection Agency, which funded 65 of 165 proposals in its 2004 P3 Award: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet.

The goal of the competition was to have “teams of college students research, develop, and design sustainable solutions to environmental challenges.” The EPA notes that P3 represents a step beyond P2 (pollution prevention), and “highlights people, prosperity, and the planet- the three pillars of sustainability.”

UC’s team was led by director of environmental studies, Eric Maurer, assistant professor of engineering, Dan Oerther, and assistant professor of environmental studies, Cinnamon Carlarne. It included Pascal Saikaly, a graduate teaching assistant, and students Catherine Clark, Regina Lamendella, Daniel Mouch, Douglas Noonan, and Sarah Pumphrey.

The goal of their project was to extract the nutrient phosphorous from municipal wastewater in a form that could be used as a fertilizer for agricultural and horticultural purposes. Phosphorous is a non-renewable resource that can cause ecological problems when an excess is released into natural water bodies. The team’s solution was to design a bio-reactor. This is a process that uses bacteria to “digest” sewage and extract the phosphorous in a form that can be removed from wastewater. The result is reduced ecological impacts, reduced reliance on a finite resource, better water quality, and economic return from wastewater in the form of a saleable product-fertilizer.

Maurer reported that the two judges from the National Academies of Science and Engineering “spent a significant amount of time with the UC students.” But even though the group was not among the final winners, he says they “had a great time” and are already preparing for next year’s competitions.