Once again this summer, area manufacturers took advantage of the Southwest Ohio Pollution Prevention (P2) Internship Program to advance their companies’ missions to optimize production by decreasing costs and improving performance through energy and material conservation. Butler County companies MillerCoors, LLC, and Tedia Company, Inc., each hosted an undergraduate engineering student to work on pre-determined pollution prevention projects. The P2 interns participated in a week-long intensive training in P2 techniques that they were able to apply to the host company projects during their 12-week tenure on site.

Tedia Company, Inc.
Based in Fairfield, Ohio, Tedia is a manufacturer and global distributor of high purity solvents for life science, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, laboratory, and industrial applications. Tedia’s extensive manufacturing capabilities give them the flexibility to handle jobs from small pilot batches to large and complex purification, blending and packaging operations.

Tedia wanted to develop an information database to help determine the most appropriate disposal option for identified waste streams. Through the P2 Internship Program, Tedia’s intern, Michael Klimek (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 2010, The Ohio State University) developed a comprehensive waste disposition database that streamlined reuse, recycling, and reduction in hazardous waste volumes. In addition, Tedia incorporated other projects into the summer intern program that improved operations and reduced regulatory compliance requirements including air permit preparation, tank mechanical integrity inspections, air monitoring and safety checks, spent chemical identification, piping and instrumentation diagrams, and molecular sieve regeneration.

MillerCoors
MillerCoors operates the largest brewery in Ohio at its Trenton facility. Brewing since 1991, the 111-acre facility is one of the company’s newest and most modern, producing 11 million barrels of beer a year. MillerCoors aims to reduce its environmental footprint through several sustainable development priorities. The water dependent industry focuses on several strategies to reduce water consumption, decrease energy usage, and minimize waste sent to landfill.

MillerCoors’ intern, Matthew Fehr (B.S., Chemical Engineering, 2010, Miami University) provided technical support to identify several new efficiencies for process areas with high water demand, reduce energy consumption with energy efficient lighting installations, continuously improve their recycling and waste disposal practices through on-site monitoring and evaluation, and identify new outlets for by-products of the brewing process. MillerCoors estimates an annual savings $584,000 as a result of the P2 projects completed under the internship program.

Southwest Ohio Pollution Prevention Internship Program
The P2 Internship Program is a collaboration between the Hamilton and Butler County Solid Waste Management Districts and TechSolve, Inc. Partial funding for the program is provided by a grant from U.S. EPA Region 5. The goal of the internship program is to give students an edge in obtaining full time employment after graduation, create and keep technically skilled jobs in Ohio, give businesses fresh and innovative ideas about pollution prevention, and save companies money.

The Hamilton and Butler County Solid Waste Management Districts fund 75 percent of the internship cost, while the business matches 25 percent. Interns are employed by Hamilton or Butler County. They work at the business as a contractor for a 12-week period. Prior to beginning the internship, the interns participate in an intense week of pollution prevention training.

Applications for businesses will be available starting October 19, 2009 and are due no later than January 29, 2010. If your company is interested in participating in this program, please contact: