A green energy venture in Columbus is taking a practical route to solving a head-scratcher: What do you do with the excess of former excess?
With the help of a $1 million federal stimulus grant awarded this week through the Ohio Department of Development, Cleveland’s quasar energy group – formerly Schmack BioEnergy LLC – is planning to build a compressed natural gas fueling station at its $10 million anaerobic digester facility at the former Columbus trash-burning power plant site off Jackson Pike. That site, a quasar joint venture with Kurtz Bros Inc., takes treated sewage sludge and food waste such as fats, oils and grease and converts them to biogas. The biogas then is turned into electricity and sold to the region’s power grid.
Kurtz is a resource management company for the landscaping and construction industries.
That venture officially was commissioned in December, locking in six full- and part-time jobs for Columbus. Nearly four months later, it’s pumping out 1 megawatt of energy an hour, beyond original projections, said Caroline Henry, quasar's marketing manager.
“That excess biogas would be flared, but what we proposed is to take it ... clean it up and make compressed natural gas,” she said.
The next stop for the compressed natural gas is a fueling station. From there it would be sold to anyone with a vehicle that runs on the renewable energy source, considered more environmentally friendly and cheaper than gas or diesel. quasar estimates the cost of the fueling station project will hit about $1.5 million, with engineering work set to begin next month and completion eyed for September. Construction will create 11 jobs, while one full-time position will be added in Columbus as the station is up and running.
The addition of the compressed natural gas fueling station would mark Central Ohio’s fifthjoining other sites in Columbus, Coshocton and Newark. The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio runs a station on London-Groveport Road in Grove City, but has idled it since last summer amid a leagal battle with its builder, SWACO spokesman John Remy said in an e-mail.
