2015 Fall Grand Valley Magazine - (Page 8)
RESEARCH
Old batteries could mean new
rural recycling options
by Nate Hoekstra
Living in cities and suburbs often
means easy access to recycling facilities
or curbside pickup services, but trying to
reduce, reuse and recycle in rural areas
can take much more time and effort.
A new partnership between Grand
Valley's School of Engineering and
Hastings Township, a rural community
about an hour southeast of downtown
Grand Rapids, is hoping to bring
sustainable, portable recycling stations
to underserved rural communities.
Nicholas Baine, assistant professor
of engineering, has been working with
township officials to build a one-of-akind prototype recycling center that
can be trucked to remote locations and
operated without needing access to
the power grid.
The prototype currently sits in the
parking lot of the Hastings Township
Hall, and is essentially an old semi trailer,
with some important modifications.
Windows and doors were cut into the
sides to allow for recyclable materials,
and it has four solar panels installed on
the roof. The panels allow the center to
be completely self-sufficient so they
can be placed in spaces where there
are no power lines.
"The solar panels send power through
a system to the bank of batteries inside
the unit, which allows lights and security
systems to continue to work at night or
on cloudy days," Baine said.
The built-in power system is critical
to keeping overhead on the recycling
stations low, said Jim Brown, Hastings
Township supervisor.
"If these were to go into rural locations
throughout the county, it would be cost
prohibitive to send a maintenance person
out to each location just to check and
see how full the recycling bins are on a
regular basis," Brown said. "Having the
stored solar power on board will allow us
to go online and look at a webcam inside
the trailer to determine when bins need
to be emptied rather than driving to a
site that could be a long distance away
just to check it out."
The solar cells send power for storage
to a bank of post-vehicle-application
lithium-ion batteries, which are
commonly found in newer hybrid and
electric vehicles. Once the batteries
can't hold enough of a charge for a
vehicle, they can be repurposed for
power storage, which doesn't require
as much current as vehicles do. Baine
Nicholas Baine, assistant professor of engineering, is inside a
solar-powered recycling center that can be trucked to rural locations.
photo by Bernadine Carey-Tucker
8
Fall '15
said some of the used batteries in the
prototype recycling center came from
hybrid bus battery packs that couldn't
meet the needs of the buses any longer.
While Hastings Township doesn't need
more than one or two of the recycling
centers, Brown said he's identified
roughly a dozen sites throughout
rural Barry County that could use the
portable recycling stations.
"We're not always going to have
locations right next to the township hall
where we could plug into an electrical
circuit, which is why the solar power and
power storage capabilities become so
important," he said. "We're interested
in this concept that would improve rural
recycling services while driving down
costs in places where curbside isn't
available or practical."
Building and testing the prototype
unit took about a year, and was
completed in August. Because it's a
prototype, the initial center cost about
$35,000 to make, but Brown said future
versions should be able to be built for
less than half that amount.
The GVSU portion of the project has
been funded by the U.S. Department
of Transportation's Research and
Innovation Technology Administration
University Transportation Centers
program, through the Mineta National
Transportation Research Consortium
with matching funds provided by
Grand Valley. Grand Valley's Michigan
Alternative and Renewable Energy
Center, or MAREC, was also part of the
project. MAREC program manager Kim
Walton worked with the township for
three years in the planning stages of the
project and worked with a solar installer
to design parts of the system. MAREC
will collect data on the unit.
Baine said that the recycling center,
as it's currently designed, will require
minimal maintenance and can run
autonomously for up to three days
without sunshine.
"The prototype we're building in
conjunction with Hastings Township
could have big implications for energy
storage solutions for rural applications
in the future," Baine said. "We're
recycling batteries to help other people
recycle their household waste. I think
that's a pretty cool concept."
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2015 Fall Grand Valley Magazine
Campus News
Research
Athletics
Arts
Scientific symbiosis
Focal Point
Seidman College expanding EMBA
Sailing at 1/12th scale
Same song, different verse
Q&A Lynn 'Chick' Blue
Off the path
International Education
2015 Fall Grand Valley Magazine
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMagazineSpring2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMagazineWinter2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMagazineFall2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMagazineSummer2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMagazineSpring2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/Spring2016GVMagazine
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/Winter2016GVMagazine
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/2015FallGVMagazine
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/Summer2015GVMagazine
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMSpring2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMwinter2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/Grandvalley/GVMFall2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/Grandvalley/grandvalleymagazine
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/spring2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/winter2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/fall_2013
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com