PFW secures two recycling research project grants totaling more than $560K

A Purdue Fort Wayne educator secured two grants totaling more than $560,000 from the Department of Energy for recycling research projects.

Bin Chen, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science, competed against universities nationwide to secure the funding. Both of the projects will utilize artificial intelligence.

The first project will be a two-year, $100,000 project to help create a machine to sort a variety of recyclable plastic bottles for conversion into chemicals or other usable materials. An overhead camera system would recognize the type of bottle and sort it accordingly.

A second grant will help fund a three-year, $461,071 project for battery recycling. Chen will assist with designing and developing a sorting machine similar to the above-mentioned machine for plastic bottle recycling as part of a large project to increase consumer participation in battery recycling programs, improve the economics of recycling, and establish state and local collection programs.

Watch the story on 21Alive

Also read: Education Notebook: Purdue University Fort Wayne educator nets $560,000 for recycling research projects | The Journal Gazette (subscription required) | Aug. 19