A faculty team lead by Drs. Jenny Retherford, Khalid Alshibli, and Qiang He have won an award from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to sponsor a capstone Senior Design. A student team consisting of Jason Patterson (team leader) Greg Haerr, Samantha Hightower, and Chelsea Thompson will seek to determine if a waste byproduct from an air pollution control process can be incorporated into recycled building materials through experimental research. More specifically, the team will explore the possible use of Dry Flue Gas Desulphurization (DFGD) byproduct in building modular blocks for Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) wall systems. DFGD is a process for removing sulfur dioxide from power plant stack emissions. The DFGD process produces tons of the byproduct on a daily basis, which is currently landfilled.
Along with EPRI, addition industry partners in this project include Alstom and the Tennessee Valley Authority.