Council OKS $30.1M sewage-to-electricity project
A $30.1 million project to use the methane-rich biogas produced by one of Columbus’ South Side sewage treatment plants to fuel generators and produce electric power and heat was approved Monday by the Columbus City Council.
Within two years, the Jackson Pike plant will burn methane extracted from its series of large, domed “anaerobic digesters” that motorists pass along Interstate 71 south of Downtown as fuel for both turning electric generators and heating the plant using a new combined heat and power (CHP) engine system.
The project is part of the city’s ongoing effort to produce electricity from wasted energy. The sewage treatment plant currently “flares,” or burns off
without any use, the methane produced by sewage – a process that is both dirtier for the environment and wastes potential heat energy.
“You’re building a power plant inside an existing (and continuously operating) wastewater treatment plant, so obviously it’s a very complicated process,” Council member Rob Dorans, chair of the utilities committee, told The Dispatch after the meeting. “The way we’re releasing (methane) right now is much dirtier. We don’t have any use for it. We don’t have any infrastructure for it.”
The city hopes to break even on the project after an unspecified number of years by providing half of the waste treatment plant’s electric power using two heat-recovery steam generators, which a 2018 study estimated at potentially up to 3 megawatts.
The digesters use some of the methane – the main component in natural gas – in the process of breaking down and treating sewage, but the rest is flared as a waste product, said the report by Arcadis, an engineering firm hired by the city.
A 2011 U.S. EPA study found that biogas cogeneration through CHP systems was “technically feasible” at more than 1,300 wastewater-sewage treatment plants across the U.S., and could be “economically attractive” at up to about half of those sites. “CHP can save facilities considerable money on their energy bills due to its high efficiency, and it can provide a hedge against unstable energy costs,” the report found.
The Dispatch reported in January that the city was breathing new life into its utilities’ generation program by approving
$15.3 million in bond money to repair the electric hydrogenerators at O’shaughnessy Dam. The dam, located near the Columbus Zoo and constructed in the 1920s, began producing power in 1987 under a federal program to reduce reliance on foreign oil. It had a 5-megawatt capacity – enough to potentially power thousands of homes. That facility should be operational once again by mid-2023.
In other business Monday, the council:
h Approved spending $4 million in city general fund money to support high-quality preschools at dozens of locations throughout the city as, part of the city’s Early Start program. Earlier in the day, Mayor Andrew J. Ginther and other city and community leaders announced $3.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Covid-relief funding would be used to support the child care industry, including $500,000 to provide$1,000 signing bonuses to 500 newly hired preschool teachers.
h Approved two federal court settlements that will cost taxpayers
$610,000. Of that, $400,000 went to a former Columbus police officer, Kevin Morgan, whom the city fired after 13 years with the force after accusing of him about lying on his time sheet while working a “special duty” security job at an apartment complex. Morgan, who is Black, had argued that the matter was the fault of his supervisor and that white officers accused of greater infractions hadn’t been fired. Had Morgan’s case gone to trial and the city lost, taxpayers’ liability was estimated more than $1.3 million, including for back pay, attorney fees and compensatory damages, said Lara Baker-morrish, chief counsel with the city attorney’s office. The second settlement, for $210,000, went to Andrea Boxill, a former specialdockets coordinator at the Franklin County Municipal Court. She had accused Judge James P. O’grady of creating a hostile work environment by making sexist and racist comments over several years, which O’grady denies.
h Accepted the recommendation of the Columbus Tax Incentive Review Council not to revoke property-tax
abatements and other incentives granted to businesses that failed to meet job creation requirements in 2020 because of the COVID-19 economic disruptions. The 3,713 jobs created were only 58% of the target, but only one agreement was revoked. “I appreciate the extraordinary challenges many companies faced last year, and I look forward to seeing them return to growth-oriented strategies and job creation in 2021,” city Development Director Michael Stevens told the council.
h Formally appropriated more than $63 million in revenues the city received that were beyond projections given the pandemic. The vast majority of that money was from income tax revenues as the Columbus economy generally recovered more quickly than expected over the last three years following the COVID-19 downturn. Some of that money will be used to pay for police pay raises under a newly approved contract, city Budget Director Joe Lombardi told council. wbush@gannett.com @Reporterbush