A team of mechanical engineering students from Georgia Southern University has received $105,000 in grants from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Peace, Prosperity and People Competition, held recently in Washington, D.C. The team, led by Valentin Soloiu, Ph.D., a professor of mechanical engineering and the Allen E. Paulson Chair of Renewable Energy, designed a biodiesel engine that reduces the nitrous oxide and particle matter in its emissions by 50 percent. The low temperature combustion engine uses biofuel made of n-Butanol and cottonseed.Jimmy Blitch, a former cotton farmer who knew Soloiu, reached out to the team about the biodiesel engine and the cottonseed biofuel. “The goal was to reduce the emission of NOx (nitrous oxide) and the PM (particle matter) because it’s a trade off, with the cottonseed biodiesel,” said Henry Ochieng, a graduate of the Georgia Southern mechanical engineering program.