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Printer-Friendly ModeBiodiesel, urban growing to be studied in new greenhouses
July 19, 2005 —
Students and faculty of Saginaw Valley State University are collaborating with volunteers to research cheaper methods for the production of food and sources of energy.
Two greenhouses are being built east of campus on North Michigan Ave. with the goal of setting up an easy, cost effective blueprint for individuals to use anywhere in the world. The greenhouses will take up an area of almost 2,000 feet.
The project is being funded by the Allen Foundation, which approved a grant of $1 million for SVSU through its Research Endowment Fund to help benefit nutrition education, training and research.
SVSU's H.H. Dow Chair of Chemistry David Swenson is leading the research project, named "Winter Urban Agriculture." The project will help determine the feasibility and cost to help people in urban areas make cash crops for income. Swenson says that a goal of the project is to help those who are deficient in nutritional areas.
Michigan has one of the highest obesity rates in the country, which, according to Swenson, will be helped by growing "fresh greens" for consumption and sale in areas that are local to where the crops are created. Along these lines, research is being done to make it possible for people to grow crops around their own homes by using a cheap form of heat to produce greenhouses nearby. This would compensate for the time it takes to ship them from other areas, such as California.
The project will receive an initial grant of $500,000 to be followed with two additional grants of $250,000 in subsequent years. Researchers will be examining ways to use forms of waste such as cooking oil, corn and run off from electricity and recycling it to form cheap energy. There will be a lab for students and the possibility of classes being held in the greenhouse.
"This will be a lab that can, not only help you obtain your education, but also help with real life situations," Swenson explains.
Swenson says that students from the College of Science, Engineering, and Technology will be joined by students of the College of Business and Management in pursuit of the most cost-effective methods, marketing and other areas of this project. Many professors from these colleges will also be working together to achieve the goals of the project. Volunteers are welcome to help with the project and will be appreciated.
"We are trying to find ways to take someone else's waste and turn it into gold, as the old adage goes," Swenson says.
Christopher Schilling, SVSU Charles Strosacker Chair of Engineering, is researching ways to produce efficient and cheap biodiesel fuel. Biodiesel fuel is fuel that can be used in any non-diesel operated engine that runs on vegetable grease and ethanol.
Schilling says it is easy to make and that there is a bus currently touring the country in support of this alternative fuel method. The bus is affiliated with Dartmouth College and is named the "Veggie School Bus." Schilling says that electric generators can also run on biofuel.
"Michigan's unemployment is one of the worst in the country," Schilling says. "Biodiesel fuel looks to be a promising industry that may provide employment for students."
An SVSU club, Student Alternative Energy Club, is in the making that will focus on other forms of production of energy. It will be open to all SVSU students.