4/13/2005
Contact: K.E. Schwab -- 724-738-2199;
e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu
LOW-INPUT KILN EXPERT TO VISIT SRU AS PART OF
WATER PURIFICATION PROJECT
SLIPPERY
ROCK, Pa. – Manny Hernandez, art professor at Northern
Illinois University and one of the world’s foremost experts
on the construction of low-input kilns used in the manufacture of
the Filtron filter used to purify water in numerous countries
around the world, will be on campus next week for discussions and
demonstrations.
The filters
are used to make water potable in areas where drinking water is
contaminated.
Hernandez’s visit
will run Monday through Saturday and will include visits with
various art, geology, international business and science classes,
reports Richard Wukich, professor of art, who recently traveled to
the Darfur region of the Sudan to assess the feasibility of
building a filter manufacturing facility there. He points out he
and Hernandez are working with Potters for Peace to spearhead
manufacture of the filters. They have also traveled to Iraq for the
organization.
Potters
for Peace, an organization of ceramic artists, is working to build
an independent, nonprofit, international network of individuals
concerned with peace and justice issues.
Wukich
explains he and several art students have received an SRU
Faculty-Student Research Grant to fund the development of
standardized kiln design that can be used by developing nations.
The kilns, which can burn sawdust or peanut shells or other
agricultural or industrial wastes, are used in the manufacture of
the actual water filters.
A
low-input kiln will be demonstrated as part of SRU’s Earth
Festival set for April 23 at the Robert N. Macoskey Center for
Sustainable Systems Education and Research.
“The
expectation is that the kiln design developed at SRU will be the
one implemented in the Sudan,” Wukich explains, adding that
since last December’s tsunami in southeast Asia, requests for
filer technology has increased dramatically. Potters for Peach has
extended its areas of concentration to Sri Lanka, Indonesia and
Cambodia.
Wukich
may be reached at rwuckich@pathways.net
PN, PgN, WPN, PR