Jump to main content.

Featured Story

Site Navigation

Current News

Archives

Research Project Search
Enter Search Term:

NCER Advanced Search

EPA's People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) awards given to biodiesel projects

Reprinted with permission from AutoblogGreen
Posted Apr 24th 2008 2:01PM by Sebastian Blanco
Filed under: Biodiesel, Legislation and Policy

epa logoPeople, Prosperity and the Planet (P3). Sounds like a nice collection of "P" words, no? It's also an annual call from the Environmental Protection Agency (known simply as the Agency exit EPA by some) to finds innovative solutions to a dirty world. The EPA has announced the winners of this year's P3 competition - which is open to college students and teams - and two biodiesel projects are among them. Both Loyola University of Chicago and Drexel University will get their $75,000 prizes for biodiesel projects. Loyola's winning entry will allow the student to build a lab that will turn cafeteria vegetable oil waste into the biofuel. Over at Drexel, the students have developed a biodiesel reactor that uses bubbling alcohol vapors and acid catalysts to prevent soap formation and is therefore able to make biodiesel more efficiently. Other schools won for their work on treating wastewater and disinfecting drinking water, among other things. Read more about the P3 winners after the jump and on the EPA website.

Press Release:

College Students Find Greener Solutions to Protect the Planet

(Washington, D.C. - April 23, 2008) EPA's annual People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) competition plants the seeds for future technologies that are both environmentally-friendly and profitable. The competition winners announced last night show the agency harvested a plentiful crop this year. Students from University of California-Davis will develop technology to produce plastic from wastewater. Loyola University of Chicago students will construct a laboratory to produce biodiesel from their cafeteria's vegetable oil waste. The University of Iowa team will develop a hand-held water sanitizer useful for disinfecting drinking water in households of poor communities around the world.

This national competition, sponsored by EPA's Office of Research and Development, encourages college students to create sustainable solutions to environmental problems through technological innovation. These sustainable 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.

"EPA's National Sustainable Design Expo and People, Prosperity and the Planet competition provide a window into tomorrow," said Dr. George Gray, assistant administrator for the Office of Research and Development. "These innovative student teams not only show technologies for a greener future, but demonstrate the passion and innovative thinking that will lead us there."

Winners of this year's awards and their projects are:


The P3 Award competition was held at EPA's 4th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., April 20-22. The Expo showcases innovative, cutting-edge technologies designed by the P3 teams along with sustainable policies and technologies developed and implemented by government and state agencies and nonprofit organizations.

Support for the competition includes more than 40 partners in the federal government, industry and scientific and professional societies. This year's Expo was co-sponsored by The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education and The World Environment Center.

Video and photos of the P3 winners, exhibits and teams at the Expo: http://www.epa.gov/P3/multimedia
P3 award winners and their projects: http://www.epa.gov/p3/08/winners
More information about the P3 Award competition: http://www.epa.gov/P3
EPA's sustainability research program: http://www.epa.gov/sustainability
[Source: EPA]

Top of page

Local Navigation

Jump to main content.