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Projects Updates for place: National Soybean Research Center

  1. Final Report submitted to SSC - E2E

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Environment-Enhancing Energy Paradigm for Food Waste to Biofuel and Biomaterial [ARCHIVED]

     

    The project began in the start of spring 2018 semester and had four phases, each phase consisting of 2 months approximately. The first phase consisted of analyzing the feedstock sources from the dining hall for their energy content at laboratory scale in batch reactions and potential economical returns. In doing so, our team determined which food category had the greatest conceivable benefit to campus, based on quantifying the available waste and value recovery using HTL. The second phase of this project will consist of converting the oil phase of the laboratory HTL process into a refined product for the sustainability project. During this phase, the biooil was modified via chemical treatment to refine the petroleum alternative into a usable product that can substitute a campus cost. This portion of the work was essential to validating food waste HTL processing, as our projects can specifically improve UIUC sustainability. The following weeks focused on preparing a larger scale assessment for expanding the HTL scope of feedstocks for further energy recovery using waste at larger scale, as well as determining the potential impacts on campus with sizable amounts of food waste.

     

    Attached Files: 

  2. 18F Semesterly Report - Supermileage

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Eco Illini Supermileage

    Last year in competition our new car earner us 12th place with 614mpg. This is much lower than we had hoped for but we have identified our problems and are ready for a much better season. Our biggest issue was we encountered a fuel leak. The leak was not discovered until the last day of competition when it could not be fixed in time. This had a large impact on our fuel economy and kept us from being successful. We also had a bad gear ratio which meant we had to run our engine more than we would have liked to. Finally, we had a lot of issues with our body panels that increased our drag. We have resolved the fuel leak and gear ration, and are redoing some of our body panels to correct this. We hope to bounce pack and break 1000mpg this year.

    Attached Files: 

  5. 18F Semesterly Report - Juice Processing

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Sustainable Agricultural Food System

    The project has had much opportunity to develop test recipes and trial the equipment that has arrived, but is waiting on some key pieces to arrive.  The harvester being provided by funding from Dining has also arrived and been tested in the field with this year’s harvest.

    Attached Files: 

  7. Final Report submitted to SSC - Hand Sink

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Sustainable Agricultural Food System

     

    The sink has been fully installed and is meeting all goals of the project. Water usage from hand washing is down as a direct result of this installation, along with providing awareness of the use of water in a processing facility.

     

    Attached Files: 

  8. 18F Semesterly Report - Red Oak Rain Garden 2.0

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Red Oak Rain Garden

     

    Spring 2017: Landscape Architecture student Cameron Letterly submitted proposal to SSC, along with Illinois Extension’s Eliana Brown. Cameron graduated.

    Summer 2017: Cameron completed initial design work for garden

    Fall 2017: Staff turnover; Cameron left to start MBA program and Katherine Gardiner was brought on as Communications Lead

    Winter 2017-2018: Staff addition of Landscape Architect student Layne Knoche

    Spring 2018: Layne designing Extension pamphlets to base future RORG communications products upon, with assistance from Eliana and Katherine

    Summer 2018: Staff addition of Landscape Architect Master’s Candidate Kayla Myers; Layne and Kayla work to re-design garden.

    Fall 2018: Grounds will remove rock and install erosion control fabric.

    Winter 2018-2019: Kayla Myers and Layne Knoche to work with Architectural Review Committee for final design approval and plant suppliers to arrange spring planting.

    Spring 2019: Cement finishers will install the sidewalk. Afterwards, Master Gardeners, Master Naturalists, and the Red Bison student group will install the plantings.

     

    Attached Files: 

  9. Final Report submitted to SSC - LED Upgrades 104 & 222

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Illini Union 104 & 222 Lighting

    Rooms 104 and 222 of the Illini Union are both utilized extensively throughout the day. Each room maintains a high level of foot traffic and visibility within the building. An assessment team concluded that transitioning the old lighting fixtures to LED would have an overwhelmingly positive impact on energy consumption and unnecessary waste. The overarching goal of this project is to promote sustainability from within the Illini Union. The smaller scope of this project is to reduce carbon emissions and save energy by utilizing LED lighting fixtures within rooms 104 and 222 in the Illini Union. The lighting levels generated by the new LED fixtures are more than adequate for the usage, and end users and staff have been very satisfied.

    Attached Files: 

  10. 18F Semesterly Report - Student-led census of the Trelease Woods Forest Dynamics Plot

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Campus Tree Inventory
    1. Purchase of Census Materials (06/30/18): We have purchased all the equipment and materials needed for the census. Some additional small purchases may be needed near the completion of the census (nails, tags, replacement tape measurements and flagging tape) due to wear and tear.
    2. Recruitment of undergraduate student census workers (08/14/18). We recruited 34 undergraduate students from SIB, NRES, AHS and Animal Sciences to work on the census. Students spent 4-8 hours a week tagging, mapping and identifying trees. So far, we have recruited 33 students to work on the census during Spring semester 2019. About half will be returning students and will both work on the census and do independent research projects in Trelease related to the census.
    3. Student orientation and training (08/21/18): Training was completed as planned. In addition we gave students quizzes on the census methods and spent time in the field with the students throughout the semester.
    4. Development of project website (10/15/18): We have initiated the website. We will continue to build content for the website during the first part of the Spring semester whilst it is too cold to do the census.
    5. Completion of the first 12 ha of census (11/9/18): We started the census at the south side of Trelease woods, which has very high stem densities. This has slowed down progress through the plot. We have now completed around 4 ha. We will resume work when temperatures warm later in the Spring semester. We anticipate requesting additional funds this summer from LAS and ACES to allow students to work on the census over the summer break.
    Attached Files: 

  11. 18F Semesterly Report - InSPIRE

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    We have finished our final solar energy system design and have gained approval from an ECE professor (Philip Krein) as well as an electrical engineer in F&S (Joseph Y. Youakim). We are waiting on the parts for the final solar energy system to be purchased by our faculty sponsor. Our structural design nearly has approval from F&S and we are compiling a list of items to purchase.

    Attached Files: 

  12. 18F Semesterly Report - Bee Campus USA Signage

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Bee Campus USA

    The Fall 2018 semester was used as a planning stage for the Bee Campus signage project. On November 15th, the Bee Campus USA committee met to discuss the content and design on each of the permanent signs. Additionally, we discussed locations to consider for placing the signage. During Spring 2019, I plan to have the locations of the signage approved by March. Purchasing and orders should be completed by April.  

    Attached Files: 

  13. 18F Semesterly Report - Hives for Beekeeping Club

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Bee Campus USA

    We have bought the bees and hives, installed the bees, and built the fence around the hives. The bees were not established enough to take much honey from them so we stayed on the safe side and allowed the bees to keep all their honey for overwintering. Recently we bought two more hives and are hoping to split our current hives to have a total of 4 hives at the sustainable farm. As the bees now have foundation built up they should start producing more honey and brood than last year, and we are expecting to be able to harvest ample honey next Fall.

    Attached Files: 

  14. 18F Semesterly Report - BIF Rooftop Solar

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    BIF Rooftop Solar PVs

     

    The BIF project was initially scheduled to begin in January 2018, but was on hold until F&S and the College received word from the state regarding the general contractor award.  The kickoff meeting took place in March 2018 and a planning meeting followed in April. 

     

    On Monday, May 21st, construction kicked off and is expected to be complete summer 2019.  Thus far, the following work has been completed (64% complete):  removal of rooftop garden; insallation of steel, metal, and concrete decking; roof membrane installed; installation of roof drain lines; installation of exterior and interior walls;  window and ductwork installation; HVAC updates/upgrades; above ceiling mechanicals and sprinkler lines installed; GWB taping and sanding with painting underway. 

     

     

    Attached Files: 

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