$50,000 in Pollution Prevention Grant Funding Awarded

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) awarded five Indiana businesses a total of $50,000 in grant funding through a partnership with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). Each business has been awarded $10,000 in this first round of grant funding.  

This grant funding provides up to 50% of the cost to implement pollution prevention projects, which were developed following water, air, solid waste, toxics, and energy (W.A.S.T.E.) audits at each facility. IDEM's W.A.S.T.E. Audit Program provides on-site or virtual technical assistance at a significantly reduced cost to Indiana manufacturers. Each participating facility received 16 hours of training and up to 40 hours of technical assistance from the Purdue MEP program and is eligible for funding to implement improvement projects. Below is a list of recipients selected to receive the first round of funding:

1. BCI Solutions, Inc. (Bremen, Ind.) received grant funding to train staff on compressed air basics and energy savings to improve institutional knowledge. Also, BCI Solutions, Inc. will switch to more efficient light fixtures at their facility and anticipate to save 50,000 kilowatt hours annually.

2. Ameri-Can Engineering (Argos, Ind.) received grant funding to improve the layout of their plant, reduce the use of forklifts, reduce heating and cooling losses, and upgrade to more efficient equipment. Ameri-Can Engineering expects to see an annual reduction of more than 12,000 kilowatt hours in electrical use, reductions in natural gas consumption, reductions in hazardous materials used and waste generated, and a reduction in air emissions and water use.

3. Kokomo Transmission Plant (Kokomo, Ind.) received grant funding to eliminate a waste stream by recovering and separating metal and oil for reuse and recycling. This will result in a reduction of approximately 240,000 pounds of waste per year that is currently being incinerated. 

4. ALOM Technologies (Indianapolis, Ind.) received grant funding to install electric vehicle chargers for its fleet, digitize processes instead of using paper, and train staff on the benefits of pollution prevention and sustainability. 

5. Kokomo Casting Plant (Kokomo, Ind.) received grant funding to retrofit their current cooling process, which will result in the reduction of 305,000 gallons of water per year.

A second round of grants will occur in early 2022. For additional information, visit https://www.in.gov/idem/prevention/pollution-prevention-grants/.  For questions or additional information about adding a process improvement assessment to your facility’s toolbelt: W.A.S.T.E. Stream Mapping, contact mepsupport@purdue.edu. 

Writer: Julie Warner, 765-496-1200, jawarner@purdue.edu