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Washington – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced that seven university and college teams received the coveted P3 Award for their innovative solutions to some of today’s toughest public health and environmental challenges.

EPA’s People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) award competition was held at the 9th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo. Each award winning team qualifies to receive a grant of up to $90,000 to further develop their design and potentially bring it to the marketplace. Previous P3 award winners have started successful businesses and are globally marketing their technologies.

“This competition plays an important role in inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers to better understand, and through innovation and ingenuity more effectively solve, our world’s complex environmental problems,” said Lek Kadeli, principal deputy administrator for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “The P3 program gives this nation’s students the opportunity to apply their creative ideas to real world situations and protect our nation’s environment in a more sustainable fashion.”

Winners of this year’s awards are:

• Cornell University for designing a simple, low-cost, lower-maintenance water filtration device for Honduras communities, using a stacked-rapid sand filter.
• Cornell University for evaluating and improving cookstove fuel resources in Kenyan communities, by burning solid fuel without oxygen, which can create biochar for soil enrichment.
• Loyola University of Chicago for developing a greener way, through a wetland and a distillation process, to treat and reuse byproducts of biodiesel.
• University of Massachusetts Lowell for creating nontoxic, biodegradable surfactants from fruit peels and algae, and seeing how they are effective.
• Radford University for designing a naturally-occurring coating that would allow sand to absorb water pollutants, such as arsenic and cadmium.
• San Jose State University for using saw dust instead of plastic to create inexpensive building materials, customized for local climates, with 3D printer technology.
• Georgia Southern University for further innovating the Low Temperature Combustion diesel engine, to operate on locally sourced n-buthanol and cottonseed oil; thus designing a diesel engine that could create even lower NOx and soot emissions.

This year’s competition featured approximately 300 student innovators showcasing their sustainable projects designed to protect people’s health, the environment, encourage economic growth, and use natural resources more efficiently.  A panel of expert judges convened by the American Association for the Advancement of Science recommended the winners out of 45 teams following two days of judging.  The teams that competed this year proposed potential solutions to worldwide environmental problems including in many developing countries.

Every year, the National Sustainable Design Expo features EPA’s P3 competition and also highlights other sustainable initiatives, programs, and technologies developed and implemented by nonprofit organizations, government, and state agencies. This year’s expo was co-sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and Engineers without Borders, USA.

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