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GU students win grant for sustainability project

Becky Kramer
Staff writer
November 18, 2008

Dr. Phillip Appel, second from right, sits by a prototype of a vertical windmill with others working on a power generation project destined for Africa on Friday at Gonzaga University. The students are attempting to demonstrate a stand-alone generation unit that could power a single home in central Africa. (JESSE TINSLEY The Spokesman-Review) The team GU’s Alternative Technology Student Team: •Isaac Stickney, windmill design; •Lauren Panasewicz, rainwater collection system; •Brett Boissevain, solar-powered water heater; •Pat McCormick, grain-drying and storage bin.

Gonzaga University’s engineering students built a small windmill from 50-gallon plastic barrels and other junkyard castoffs.

The clunky-looking structure produces electricity at wind speeds of 10 miles per hour. Designed for a single African home, the windmill will help solve energy needs and better standards of living in Kitale, Kenya.

The windmill is one of several sustainable technology projects designed by GU students. This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rewarded their efforts with a $10,000 grant.

The other projects include grain-drying and storage bins; solar panels that heat water for cooking; and a system that collects rainwater for drinking.

A few of the projects involve “some pretty sophisticated technologies,” said Patrick McCormick, a senior in civil engineering who adapted the grain-drying and storage bins from silos in Whitman County. “We’re trying to design them on a Third World scale.”

Gilbert Nalalia provides a Kenyan perspective. The adjunct GU engineering professor hails from Kitale, a city of 100,000 people about 300 miles from Nairobi.

Farmers there grow corn and wheat in the rich agricultural region. But daily life is a struggle; electricity is unreliable, and most residents lack clean drinking water. Gonzaga is involved in an effort led by Spokane Rotarian Paul Zimmerman to manufacture affordable clay water filters in Kitale. The alternative technologies crafted by students will complement the water-filter endeavor, said Philip Appel, a GU professor of mechanical engineering.

Kilns at the manufacturing plant, for instance, will need charcoal to fire the clay filters – competing with Kenyan hearths for the rare commodity. The windmill and solar panels could reduce the need for home consumption of charcoal, Appel said. All of the alternative technology is crafted from items easily found in Kenya, Appel said. But keeping costs affordable for Kitale residents is still a challenge. Appel wants the windmill to cost no more than a month’s wages for a typical family.

That’s where the grain-drying and storage bin comes in. It’s intended to help subsistence farmers boost their incomes, so they can afford the new technology, McCormick said.

Most farmers let their harvested corn dry in the fields, where it can be stolen or eaten by foraging animals. The bins will protect the crop and give farmers the option of storing it after harvest to sell when prices are higher.

Appel and his students plan to travel to Kitale in mid-May. Zimmerman, meanwhile, applied for a $25,000 grant from Rotary International to start up the water filter manufacturing facility.

Nalelia will be the plant’s manager. Eventually, the plant will have dormitories so that people from other regions of Kenya can come to learn how to make the water filters and see other alternative technologies in use.

Blueprints will be available so they can take the ideas back to their own communities, Appel said.

Contact Becky Kramer at (208) 765-7122 or by e-mail at beckyk@spokesman.com.

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