A 2005 MEM Senior Design team has been chosen as the recipients of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) P3 Award, "A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet".

Based on the work of MEM seniors Ken Letterle, Jose Sanchez, and Mac Haas, the project titled, "Design of a Trap Grease Upgrader for Biofuel Processing", was awarded $13, 597, which will provide funding for the 2006 senior design teams to continue the work.

The program was suggested by the group's sponsor, Philadelphia Fry-o-Diesel, since it involved undergraduates working on sustainable design projects. "We researched projects that had previously won the award and determined that the production of biofuels would be an excellent topic, and when we presented the information to our advisor, Dr. Cernansky, he encouraged us to apply," said Haas.

Under the direction of advisor Dr. Nicholas Cernansky, the project was created to provide a technical and economic evaluation of a trap grease to biodiesel conversion process. It also seeks to characterize the properties of trap grease to provide design data for a pilot-scale trap grease upgrading process.

The EPA reviewers had chosen the MEM Seniors' project for a variety of reasons. Biofuels can help reduce emissions of pollutants and carbon dioxide and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The project will control the grease that can clog sewer lines or reduce the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants and converts it from waste to a beneficial product. The EPA stated that the project was unique, promotes the use of alternative fuels and the need for this work was clearly demonstrated.

This award has made a tremendous impact on these students. "This project has demonstrated the importance of pioneering new use for waste products, or in other words, turning trash into treasure," said Haas. "The project will allow us to perform meaningful engineering work with a direct industrial purpose," said Letterle. "I hope the work of another Drexel senior design generation will expand the possibilities beyond the greater Philadelphia region and yield results as meaningful as those produced by our group in this year's senior design project," he said.

In an interesting turn of events, Philadelphia Fry-o-Diesel has recently hired a 2005 Drexel Chemical Engineering graduate to operate the plant that the team helped design.