EPA awards $75,000 grant to Clarkson University for food waste project

P3 Phase II grant winners from Clarkson University.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Washington, has awarded a $75,000 People, Prosperity and the Plant (P3) grant to Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. The grant will be used to develop a more efficient ammonia removal and recovery process for food waste digesters to reduce the volume of food waste sent to solid waste landfills.

The P3 program is a two-phase research grants program that challenges students to research, develop and design projects addressing environmental and public health challenges. Phase I serves as a proof of concept where teams are awarded a $15,000 grant to develop their idea and showcase their research in the spring at EPA's National Sustainable Design Expo. These teams are then eligible to compete for a Phase II grant of up to $75,000 to implement their design in a real-world setting.

“These students are applying what they have learned in the classroom to create innovative solutions to environmental challenges,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt says. “These awards support the next generation of scientists and engineers in their commitment to environmental protection, while helping states, tribes and local communities find solutions to their environmental issues.”

Nationally, EPA awarded more than $557,000 in funding for eight student teams through the P3 Grants Program during Phase II. These teams, made up of college students from across the country, are developing sustainable technologies to solve current environmental and public health challenges. Other P3 Phase II winners include:

• Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey;
• Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia;
• University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati;
• Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas;
• California State University, Chico, Chico, California;
• Butte College, Oroville, California; and
• University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California.

"We are excited for the Clarkson’s P3 student team who are developing innovative food waste solutions to address our most pressing environmental, health and energy questions while educating our future engineers and scientists," Gina Lee-Glauser, vice president for research and scholarship at Clarkson University, says. "Environmental projects like this one give our students the chance to solve real world, open-ended problems with creativity and risk taking to obtain solutions that are practical and sustainable."

To learn more about the projects of the 2018 P3 Phase II winners, visit www.epa.gov/P3/20172018-p3-grant-recipients. For more information on the P3 Program, visit www.epa.gov/P3.