US students win water prize; NewAge Industries is landfill-free; Rockwell names board chairman

Sept. 11, 2017

The high school students’ award-winning project is designed to detect and purify water contaminated with bacteria.

US students win 2017 Stockholm Junior Water Prize

Two U.S. high school students, Rachel Chang and Ryan Thorpe of Manhasset, N.Y., have won the world’s most prestigious competition for water-related research for their novel approach to detect and purify water contaminated with bacteria. Chang and Thorpe were awarded the 2017 Stockholm Junior Water Prize on August 29, 2017, in Stockholm for their project that judges believe could prevent waterborne diseases and expand potable water throughout the world. The students constructed a system that detects and purifies water contaminated with E. coli., Salmonella, Cholera, and Shigella more rapidly and sensitively than conventional methods. Their system detects as little as one reproductive bacteria colony per liter instantaneously and eliminates bacterial presence in approximately 10 seconds. In contrast, conventional methods have detection limits of up to 1,000 colonies and take one to two days.

NewAge Industries achieves landfill-free status

As a manufacturer of plastic and rubber tubing, NewAge Industries generates waste material during the production process. All of the waste is reused, recycled or disposed of by combustion at a local EfW (energy from waste) facility. Plastic tubing that is extruded at the start of a production run is a manufacturing byproduct; it isn’t used until the tubing meets the required dimensions. This scrapped material, of which there can be thousands of pounds each year, is reused and made into new tubing whenever possible. Some rubber tubing scrap is able to be recycled as well and is incorporated into other industrial products.

Also, each team member has two trash containers: a black one for non-recyclable waste and another in blue for recyclable materials such as paper, plastic and glass. Separate containers store both types of waste outdoors before pick up and transport to an appropriate facility, either a recycler or an EfW facility. Used cardboard boxes and cardboard packaging is recycled separately. Non-recyclable trash is taken to a nearby EfW facility and burned as part of an energy recovery system. There, metals are removed from the waste and recycled, and the remaining trash is burned and used to heat water. The heated water is converted to steam, which then drives turbine generators to produce electricity.

Rockwell Automation names Moret as board chairman

Rockwell Automation Inc. announced that its board of directors has elected President and Chief Executive Officer Blake D. Moret as chairman of the board effective January 1, 2018. Moret succeeds Keith D. Nosbusch, who has served as chairman since 2005 and remains as a director. The company will continue to have an independent lead director. Moret began his career in 1985 as a sales trainee and subsequently served in senior positions across the organization, including international assignments in Europe and Canada. He was promoted to senior vice president of Control Products and Solutions, one of the company’s two business segments, in 2011, and to president and chief executive officer in July 2016. Moret serves on the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) board of directors and executive committee and on the boards of other industry and civic organizations and is a member of the Business Roundtable.

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