SRE WELCOMES INTERNS FROM BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

SRE recently welcomed two engineering students from Baylor University (Waco, Texas) as a first step toward a potential collaboration in adding value to waste coconut dust and coconut shells.

Ms. Anna Morton, a senior specializing in appropriate technology, and Ms. Elisa Guzman, a Mechanical Engineering graduate of Colorado State University who will take up graduate studies at Baylor, are members of the University's "Engineers with a Mission." They spent three weeks studying SRE's coconut coir processing activities in Ibajay, Aklan. Their observations and recommendations will serve as a basis for a potential collaboration between SRE and Baylor University in perfecting technology that will produce high-quality construction materials including fiber board and fiberglass. The University has been experimenting with a method of producing fiber board without the use of a binder, as well as producing fiber glass from finely-ground coconut shells, under the direction of Distinguished Professor Dr. Walter Bradley. Initial tests of these new products at Baylor University's laboratories have shown promising results.

"We are delighted with the prospect of expanding our product line that is currently focused on geotextiles," notes SRE president Perla Manapol, especially as there is a "growing interest in so-called 'green' construction materials in countries such as the United States."

In the past few years SRE has hosted other interns and volunteers from Canada and the U.S.