Friday, April 27, 2012

We did it!


BOONE—Appalachian State University is one of 15 universities sharing more than $1 million in awards presented as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Student Design Competition for Sustainability.
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Students and faculty from Appalachian State University, pictured here, will receive $90,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency to further develop an artificial wetland that could be used by businesses to recycle graywater for other uses. (Photo courtesy of the EPA)
Appalachian’s team, led by senior appropriate technology major Bobbie Jo Swinson, Assistant Professor Jim Houser and Jack Martin from theDepartment of Technology and Environmental Design, and Professor Michael Hambourger from the Department of Chemistry, will receive $90,000 to continue a research project to develop an artificial wetland suitable for recycling of graywater from small businesses for immediate reuse.
The award will be used to further develop their design, apply it to real world applications or move it to the marketplace, according to a news release from the EPA. Previous P3 award winners have started successful businesses and are marketing their technologies in the U.S. and around the world.
The Appalachian team will receive an additional $1,000 from the Chemical Engineers Society and has been invited to give a presentation at their annual conference.
Appalachian’s EPA P3 entry, “An On-Site Biological Graywater Treatment System Suitable for a Small Business” received initial Phase I funding in fall 2011 to test the efficacy of using plants, such as water lettuce and other water plants, in a miniature wetland to “clean” graywater from a hair salon’s waste water and use it for irrigation, to flush toilets or other use. The “point of use” wetland could not only reclaim water that normally would enter a town or city’s sewer system, but also serve as living art.
This year’s winners of EPA P3 Phase 2 funding were selected following an initial peer review process of 45 teams that competed for the funding. Their projects were judged by a panel of national experts convened to provide recommendations to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The projects also were on display on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the National Sustainable Design Expo. This year’s expo was co-sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers, Engineers without Borders-USA, Engineering for Change and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
“The competition and expo are not only about EPA’s prestigious P3 award, but also about supporting the next generation of this country’s innovators and entrepreneurs who are entering the environmental and public health field with passion to make a difference and many brilliant ideas,” said Lek Kadeli, acting assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “The P3 program gives these students the opportunity to bring those ideas to realization and many have the potential to make significant impacts on our nation’s sustainable future and development of environmental technologies.”

"Taken from appstate.edu" 

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Boy Was I Wrong

I can honestly say that the past few months have been the most nonstop, stressful, intense, and rewarding months of my life. We began this project 8 months ago, and I cannot believe how quickly its all gone by. Yet here we are, getting ready to present all of our work to the EPA in the hopes that they will find our project worthy of a whopping $90,000 grant to have the opportunity to build our gray water filtration system at Haircut 101.
And I can honestly say until a few weeks ago, I had an empty pit in my stomach thinking about all the hard work everyone had put into this,  just knowing that we were about to kill hundreds of plants in the name of research. After years of thinking about something, you're bound to doubt yourself a time or two...
Boy was I wrong.
Quite the opposite happened actually.
As we started batch testing (soaking the plants in various types of salon water) they suddenly began to perk up, even after just one day I could tell a small difference. By the third day it was apparent that all of the plants in salon water were starting to become a darker shade of green, you could even see stripes through the leaves. By the 7th day, they were taller, stronger, thicker, new shoots were forming, and some even began to flower! The complete turnaround was remarkable, and our system looks better than it ever has.
Needless to say, the chemistry of the situation is amazing as well. Most contaminants were completely removed within 3-8 days of testing! Amazing!
Basically this all means that our whole idea may actually work, and it could work very well. Who knew?
Exciting times we live in, I cant wait to tell you all what happens in Washington next weekend; look out DC, Appalachian State is taking over!!

Check out our team hard at work over the past year http://s1156.photobucket.com/albums/p563/growcleanwater/

Getting a Makeover, and Loving It!!

 The top picture is Pistia (water lettuce) before it began batch testing in Haircut 101's shampoo water, the below picture is after 7 days in the salon water.

 The above pic is of Pontederia (pickerel weed) in color wate on day 1 of batch testing, below is after 7 days of testing in the water. Amazing.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Scrub a dub dub

Jamie cleaning the salon water holding tank out so we can start running Haircut 101 water through the living system!


On Our Way

Alas the time has finally come to see just how well our plant selections perform under stress. We began "batch testing" our plants against salon water to see if they work well at degrading contaminants in Haircut 101's water. Results will be in next week, however in the meantime water collection from the salon is at an all time high! If you want to be a part of our project, schedule your haircut today at Haircut 101 today!!!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Living System Setup

                                         New plumbing line installed by Erik May to add aeration and equalize distribution of water as it enters the open ponds
                                                                               Pretty Pontederia Cordata (commonly known as pickerel weed)
                                                                                                Up close and personal with the baby pickerel
                                                                    Common koi pond plant, Pistia Strastiotes, also known water lettuce on the left side.                                                                                                                                   To the right floats Eichhornia crassipes, commonly known as water hyacinth.