Pelegrin will receive her master’s degree in May in Environmental Science and Policy. Her thesis, “Technical and Economic Feasibility of Solid-liquid Separation for Digested Dairy Manure with Polymer Treatment,” was supervised by Prof. John [...]]]> Graduate student Annette Pelegrin of Pulaski is this year’s winner of the UW-Green Bay Outstanding Thesis Award.

Pelegrin will receive her master’s degree in May in Environmental Science and Policy. Her thesis, “Technical and Economic Feasibility of Solid-liquid Separation for Digested Dairy Manure with Polymer Treatment,” was supervised by Prof. John Katers. Pelegrin will be presented the award at the UW-Green Bay Alumni Association awards program Saturday evening, April 17, at the Weidner Center.

Pelegrin’s project, which aims to make manure management more cost-effective and eco-friendly by better separating liquids from solids, was accomplished with the help of an Agricultural Development and Diversification Grant from Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Partners in the grant included two local companies, ENCAP and FEECO International, with additional support from Green Valley Dairy, Krakow, where testing took place.

Pelegrin holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from UW-Madison. She is completing final coursework for her UW-Green Bay master’s degree this semester.

Her research seeks to enhance anaerobic digestion systems already in place for managing manure on many large dairy farms. Pelegrin noted that, along with renewable energy in the form of biogas, anaerobic digestion produces nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer; unfortunately, the commercial value is somewhat limited because liquids are relatively more cumbersome and costly to handle.

Pelegrin’s project, then, seeks ways to improve on conventional mechanical separators that leave a significant amount of nutrients suspended in liquid. She evaluated water-treatment polymers for capturing the remaining solids and nutrients in digested dairy manure.  With her own polymer formula and a using a benchtop rotating drum as a separator in the lab, she went on to work with ENCAP and FEECO to develop a full-scale test at Green Valley Dairy.

After separation, the solids were transported to FEECO where they were dried and pelletized into a fertilizer product.

Source: http://blog.uwgb.edu/inside/index.php/log-news/releases/04/05/outstanding-thesis-award-1054/
Posted by: Christopher Sampson  |  April 5, 2010  -  12:48 pm

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UW-Green Bay graduates, graduate students and even some undergraduates don’t have to travel far to get on-the-job training at “green” companies.

FEECO International and the ENCAP Corporation are just down the road from campus near the intersection of Highways 54/57 and Algoma Road.

That’s there where new technologies are [...]]]>

Making wonders out of wastes

UW-Green Bay graduates, graduate students and even some undergraduates don’t have to travel far to get on-the-job training at “green” companies.

FEECO International and the ENCAP Corporation are just down the road from campus near the intersection of Highways 54/57 and Algoma Road.

That’s there where new technologies are developed to take otherwise waste material—from manure to metal shavings—and make it into something usable and profitable for corporations worldwide.

FEECO International makes industrial equipment to agglomerate, or pelletize, materials that may once have been destined for the landfills.

ENCAP, a spin-off company developed by FEECO, mixes waste from paper mills and other sources with polymers to promote grass and flower growth while at the same time preventing excessive runoff.

Both companies have used UW-Green Bay students, and have hired UW-Green Bay alumni, to help keep the Earth a greener place to live.

“It’s very good to know that I am at a company that’s trying to be green, and that’s trying to do all things environmentally friendly,” said FEECO research specialist Adam Baldwin, a 2008 master’s grad in Environmental Science and Policy. “I’m very proud of that fact. That’s something that’s very important to me.”

Classmate and colleague Nick Reckinger is a sales consultant for FEECO. He, too, wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t a greener company.

“I’d find it very hard to work for a company that I felt wasn’t working toward a good cause, or a cause that is improving our environment for the next generation,” said Reckinger, also a 2008 Environmental Science and Policy master’s grad. “Coming here, it’s been very exciting to work on a number of different projects that I can get very passionate about… and know that my contribution to the projects will really be making a difference.”

The two companies work closely with UW-Green Bay professors, seeking advice on projects and finding the best students to provide research help and ideas for the next great products.

“We have a tremendous respect for, and a great relationship with, the faculty at UW-Green Bay, particularly in the Environmental Sciences,” said Jeff Rindfleisch, ENCAP vice president of operations and research and development. “They’re a great resource for us and a wealth of information for us in helping develop our technology.

“Secondly, they also serve as a source for students for us and we’ve had a number of students come through ENCAP in doing their master’s thesis and providing long-term potential for opportunities for employment.”

Green companies and green technologies could be the wave of the future, and training in environmental and business issues should bode well in the working world, both Baldwin and Reckinger said.

“The sky is the limit for any company that’s going into this arena—the environmental aspect—because there are so many problems out there now and the solutions are not always there,” Baldwin said. “It’s the old tried-and-true right now. But if some company comes up with a very good process or idea for environmental problems, I think it’s all the better for the world in general.”

And UW-Green Bay is the place where solutions to some of those problems were, are, and will be developed.

Source: http://blog.uwgb.edu/inside/index.php/featured/leading-learning/03/16/making_wonders_out_of_waste/
March 16, 2009

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FEECO is has been a sponsor and supportor of the IBA for many years.  FEECO is a current sponsor of the [...]]]> The Institute for Briquetting and Agglomeration is a group of business and technical people interested and involved in the research, development and production of briquets, pellets and other densified products and the equipment to produce them.

FEECO is has been a sponsor and supportor of the IBA for many years.  FEECO is a current sponsor of the IBA with Chris Kozicki as the current Vice-President.  The 31st bi-annual IBA conference was held this year in San Antonio, TX from September 27 – 30.

You can find more information about the IBA at www.agglomeration.org.

This year, FEECO gave a presentation on Organics Granulation, see attached link.

http://www.slideshare.net/feeco/iba-2009

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