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Clarkson University Environmental Design Team wins highest award at international contest in South Korea

Posted 3/1/12

In front of the Jogye Buddhist Temple in Seoul, from left, graduate students Shaun M. Jones and Daegan A. J. Gonyer pose with team co-advisor Professor Stefan J. Grimberg. With a food and waste …

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Clarkson University Environmental Design Team wins highest award at international contest in South Korea

Posted

In front of the Jogye Buddhist Temple in Seoul, from left, graduate students Shaun M. Jones and Daegan A. J. Gonyer pose with team co-advisor Professor Stefan J. Grimberg.

With a food and waste management system design, the Clarkson University Environmental Design Team won the highest award in the 2012 International Capstone Design Contest on Renewable Energy Technology (CORE2012) at Mokpo, South Korea, earlier this month. The competition is sponsored by Mokpo National University and the Offshore Wind Energy Center, both of South Korea.

Graduate students Daegan A. J. Gonyer, an engineering science major from Groveton, N.H., and Shaun M. Jones, a civil engineering major from Potsdam, N.Y., traveled to Mokpo to present the work of the design team, along with team co-advisor Professor Stefan J. Grimberg, chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.

At the competition 43 Korean national and 13 international teams competed for awards in both the national and the international categories. The international teams came from Australia, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Viet Nam.

The Clarkson design team shared the first-place platinum award in the international division for its work on the role of renewable energy in an integrated food and waste management system.

The other winning team's project was titled "second use lithium battery integration in solar systems for load flattening and economic benefits." That team represented Curtin University, Australia.

Over the past three years, Clarkson students designed, built and are now operating a cold climate greenhouse. The system is housed in a passive solar building and employs an aeroponic growing system, LED lights and extensive sensors and controls for energy efficiency.

The greenhouse is part of a system that includes an anaerobic digester to convert campus food waste into heat and electricity. Effluent from the digester will be used as fertilizer for the greenhouse and as a soil amendment for Clarkson's grounds, thus reducing the need of commercial fertilizer.

A high-efficiency solar thermal and a wood-pellet heating system provide additional thermal energy to the greenhouse and the digester as needed during the winter. The overall system will reduce the environmental impact of the campus by removing a portion of the waste stream, while generating renewable energy and locally grown produce.