EPA awards Clarkson grants to help NNY farmers

POTSDAM — Clarkson University has been awarded two grants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop sustainable technologies designed to help north country farmers.

Clarkson's two projects will be student-led, and each will receive $10,000 in funding. Only two other universities in the state were awarded the grants, called the People, Prosperity and the Planet Phase I Awards, this year.

"For Clarkson to have two teams this year is, I think, stupendous," said Susan E. Powers, associate dean of engineering for research and graduate studies. "It speaks to the college's commitment to not just do good research but do good research that's relevant to us."

Both teams will travel to Washington, D.C., for the National Sustainable Design Expo and P3 Award Competition this spring to demonstrate their findings.

One of Clarkson's research teams plans to develop a bench-scale manure digester that could be used on small farms in colder climates.

Stefan J. Grimberg, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, said that right now the treatment technologies available to turn livestock waste into energy are feasible for use only on large farms with more than 1,000 cows.

"The unfortunate part is in New York state, half of our dairy cows are on very small farms where this technology wouldn't be very economical. We're going to try to come up with technology that will be economical even on a small scale," he said.

He said that some small digesters are used in India and China, but the technology would have to be converted for use in cold climates like that of the north country. The digesters are capable of turning manure into biogas, which can offset propane or oil use on farms, Mr. Grimberg said.

"In essence, you would have covered manure storage, so think of a farm putting manure into some kind of holding basin, then trying to insulate it as well as we can and harvest gas," he said.

The Clarkson students participating in that research soon will survey area farmers for information to help their feasibility study, Mr. Grimberg said.

The other Clarkson group will work on an innovative greenhouse that would be capable of growing local organic produce year-round. The project is the brainchild of graduate student Daegan Gonyer, Ms. Powers said.

"The greenhouse would have a very high-tech growing system, the same one used in space experiments. It's aeroponics, as opposed to hydroponics, which uses even less water and no soil," she said. "A really high density of produce can be produced on a small land mass."

In aeroponics, crops are grown by suspending their roots in a nutrient-rich mist solution.

The high-tech greenhouse would have an advanced lighting system powered by alternative energy and would be heated with waste heat. Ideally, it would be located near a grocery store or market.

The greenhouse design would be vertical to increase energy efficiency, and could stretch as many as 10 stories high, Ms. Powers said.

"We're not short on land here, but if we have greenhouses that are acres and acres and acres long, they lose energy. If we have something that's several stories high with a much smaller land footprint but it goes up, it's much easier to heat," she said.

Students will begin their work this semester by growing spinach aeroponically and testing the greenhouse technology. They also will study the feasibility of their design and business plan, Ms. Powers said.

At the national conference next spring, the two Clarkson groups will compete with teams from across the country for additional research funding of up to $75,000. The other colleges sending representatives from New York are Cornell University, Ithaca, and Rochester Institute of Technology.

"The creativity displayed by these students proves that technological innovation is an important aspect of sustainability," George Pavlou, acting regional EPA administrator, said in a statement. "It also demonstrates the fact that a green environment can go hand-in-hand with a green economy."