EWB Burkina Faso Project Awarded Grants

The Burkina Faso IV: Health project was recently awarded two grants in EWB-USA’s spring 2011 grant cycle. The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) provided $5,000 to an EWB project involving two student AIChE members, and exhibiting chemical engineering principles. Both the current project leader, Matt Conway (Junior, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering), and the previous project leader, Kevin Diehn, (1st Year Masters Student, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) are AIChE members.

The project involves installing a pump to provide water from a well and filtering the water with a slow sand filter, the design of which involves the chemical engineering fluid flow principles of friction factors and flow through porous media. The Tyler Palmer Memorial Grant awarded $2,500 to a project with a renewable energy component, which in this case is the photovoltaic solar panels used to power lights and the pump for the health clinic located miles off the grid. The EWB-USA grant process is very competitive with 80 projects applying for 6 grants.

Published May 12, 2011