Contact: Robbie Ward
Three Mississippi State chemical engineering researchers formally will accept a $200,000 grant from the regional director of the Environmental Protection Agency during an 11 a.m. Friday [June 13] campus ceremony in 250 McCain Hall, home of the Bagley College of Engineering.
Jimmie Palmer of EPA's Regional Applied Research Effort Program will present the research award dealing with the conversion of sewage into biodiesel to assistant professors Rafael Hernandez and Todd French, and associate professor Mark Bricka. The three faculty members are colleagues in the university's chemical engineering department.
The grant supports their work to chemically transform sludge and wastewater collected from a Tuscaloosa, Ala., treatment facility into a feedstock for producing biodiesel.
Hernandez, French and Bricka all work with MSU's Sustainable Energy Center. Their project also involves a future partnership with a Mississippi municipality to further test the pilot technology.
EPA's RARE grants are designed to promote collaborations among scientists in its various administrative regions and its Office of Research and Development.
For more information on the ceremony, contact Dr. Hernandez at rhernandez@che.msstate.edu. For more on the RARE grant program, visit http://www.epa.gov/osp/regions/rare.htm.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.