A local woman’s design of a system to help manage fish waste disposal has earned a patent.
Skyview High School and UAA civil engineering graduate Alexandra West works as a staff engineer for PND Engineers Inc in Anchorage and began the project for her senior thesis project at UAA.
West: “It’s a hydro-powered fish carcass grinder. It’s a paddle wheel that would float in the river and the velocity of the stream would turn the paddle wheel and power the grinders.”
The grinder is encased in a hopper and connected to a fillet table.
West grew up on the Kenai Peninsula and her father was the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge manager and both of her parents were involved in fish waste issues on the Kenai River.
West: “Huge pieces of fish or even whole pieces of the fish will get caught up in the eddy currents and they wash up on the banks of the river. They’ve tried hand grinders and people don’t use it, and stop chop and throw, into three pieces, it’s just harder for people to do that and less motivation, so this could be an easy solution.”
She said she is not sure of the next step of the patent process, there is no prototype yet it is just an idea on paper and although she is the inventer, UAA is the patent holder and has worked with her to facilitate it by covering the patent costs.