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by Alan Zagoria -
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The AIChE Foundation funds an amazing project called the AIChE Chemical Engineering For Good (ACE4G) Challenge. The organizers behind it are the Global Societal Initiatives Committee with the support of the International Committee, the Student Chapters Committee, and the Sustainable Energy Forum. Below, we announce this year's winners. This annual challenge is open to all U.S. and international AIChE student chapters. To learn more about the program, see the links below.
AIChE Chemical Engineers for Good Challenge (ACE4G)
Global Societal Initiatives Committee
How chemical engineering can be applied to solve world problems on a microscale
For this year’s challenge, the participants submitted technical proposals for an underutilized technology, or toolkits that others might use to select between a set of possible technical solutions. Teams competed for cash prizes ($3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 for the top three teams).
- 20 teams from around the world competed, including 13 international student chapters from Brazil, Egypt, Malaysia, Palestine, Pakistan, Mexico, Colombia, Singapore, Nigeria, and Bangladesh. Teams were provided a tutorial on economic, cultural, and technical sustainability concerns for international projects. The AIChE student chapters were also encouraged to collaborate with other organizations, such as Engineers Without Borders (EWB), that have experience in executing these types of projects, and many did.
- Proposals included a wide range of solutions, including the desalination of seawater to fresh water; solar water disinfection; ultrafiltration of surface water; conversion of waste plastics to a diesel-like fuel oil in underdeveloped regions; recycling of waste plastic (polystyrene) into useful chemicals; and mercury capture and remediation by polysulflides synthesized from inexpensive feedstocks.
And the winners are...
First Place: Miami University
Continuous Flow Solar Sterilization Module for a Water Treatment Plant in Kabingo, Uganda
Second Place: San Jose State University (California) and Dawood University of Engineering (Karachi, Pakistan)
Flow-electrode Capacitive Deionization of Salt Water Using Cactus
Universiti Teknologi Petronas (Seri Iskandar, Malaysia)
Gravity-Driven Membrane Ultrafiltration of Surface Water
Bonus Prize: San Jose State University (California) and Dawood University of Engineering (Karachi, Pakistan)
The bonus prize of best entry by a collaboration of US and international student chapter was awarded to San Jose State University (California) and Dawood University of Engineering (Karachi, Pakistan).
Submissions for the ACE4G 2019 Challenge will be accepted in late summer.
For more information contact Alan Zagoria, GSIC, alzagoria@gmail.com