A handful of engineering students are award winners after their project on wastewater management took top prize at a provincial competition.
This year's BC Water & Waste Association (BCWWA) Student Design Competition asked competitors to create a method of breaking down sewage and producing biogas - a mixture of gases from organic materials - at Kelowna's wastewater treatment plant.
The UNBC students' solution meant the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 90 per cent when compared to conventional approaches. The design also found a way to produce electrical and thermal energy, recover biosolids and nutrients for use as fertilizer.
"Our students are strongly motivated, and have enthusiastically participated and excelled in many external engineering design competitions. We are very proud of their accomplishments," said Jianbing Li, co-director of the Environmental Engineering Program, in Friday's release.
Allison Matfin, Clayton McBride, Stephanie Doherty, Maureen Long and Brenden Vissers are in the joint program, offered by UNBC and the University of British Columbia.
Now they'll be heading to the BCWWA's annual conference as presenters and facing new competitors at another design competition: the Water Environment Federation Student Design Competition.
UNBC President Daniel Weeks congratulated the five in the release.
"The knowledge and leadership skills these students displayed will be a huge advantage for them as they enter the working world," Weeks said. "Their accomplishment also reflects the quality of instruction provided by the engineering faculty at UNBC and UBC."
