4 Months’ Worth of Electricity from … Manure?

Ohio State University’s Nov. 18 Renewable Energy Workshop in Wooster includes a firsthand look at quasar energy group’s new anaerobic biodigester at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC).

Located in OARDC’s BioHio Research Park, the system turns unused waste — manure, food scraps, sewage sludge, and the like — into clean, renewable, useful energy. It came on line in April.

It can process up to 33,000 wet tons of biomass every year. In doing so it can produce and capture enough methane gas to generate 750 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power the OARDC campus for the equivalent of four months out of the year.

Quasar is headquartered in Cleveland. In addition to the biodigester, it has lab and engineering facilities on the OARDC campus. For a video about the partnership between OARDC and quasar, click here.

The workshop features presentations by fifteen Ohio experts on wind power, solar power, biofuels, bioenergy and green transportation, including electric cars. It ends with a tour of the quasar system.

Hours are 9 a.m.-3:45 p.m. in OARDC’s Fisher Auditorium, 1680 Madison Ave. Check-in starts at 8:30 a.m. The quasar tour is at 3 p.m.

Registration, which includes lunch, costs $25 per person if received by tomorrow (11/9), $35 afterward, and $10 for college students.

To register, send name, contact information and registration fee (checks payable to OARDC/OSU) to Mary H. Wicks, OARDC/OSU, Admin. Bldg., 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691. Indicate if a vegetarian or vegan lunch option is needed.

For more information, call 330-202-3533 or e-mail wicks.14@osu.edu.

To get full program details in a downloadable flier, click here.

In addition, quasar, Ohio State University Extension, and the Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center (OBIC) will host two free workshops on anaerobic digestion tomorrow and on Nov. 19, both from 9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. in OARDC’s Shisler Conference Center, 1680 Madison Ave. A tour of the quasar facility is included. Contact OBIC’s Denny Hall, 614-292-4188, hall.16@osu.edu, to register.

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