Grind2Energy unit is recapturing energy off the field at Browns games

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Inside FirstEnergy Stadium there is a machine that runs until the work is accomplished. It operates efficiently and consistently for each game. It hungrily takes whatever is thrown at it, does the job, and waits for more.

No, it's not the Cleveland Browns front office. It's a food-waste diversion program run by Grind2Energy. A handful of workers will step into action as soon as a game finishes, scraping food into a sink on Monday and Tuesday, where it goes down a drain, though pipes, and into a large whirring machine a few feet away.

Those 60,000-plus fans who trudge into the stadium are doing more than cheering on the Browns between August and December. They are eating, and they are eating a lot.

The Grind2Energy digester does not discriminate: Hot dogs, brats, bacon-cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, lettuce. Cheesesteaks, sausage, peppers, pretzels, ice cream. Mustard, ketchup and buns galore. Soda, beer, water - even fry oil.

Its appetite remains insatiable, and that's a good thing because a smorgasbord is offered each week during the nine weeks the stadium hosts football this season. Not all of it is eaten.

Something has to happen to all that food, and that's where Grind2Energy comes in. The 3,000-gallon tank, with pipes running from the sink to the machine and then out to a nearby loading dock, stands about 10 feet high.

Grind2Energy's massive tank grinds food into a slurry.

Grind2Energy might sound like a trendy calorie-burning drink, but it's actually a process that is more about biology than football or cooking. The goal is not only to eliminate waste but to capture energy.

Grind2Energy, owned by St. Louis-based Emerson, partners with food-service operators that generate a high volume of food scraps, said Heather Dougherty, a business-development manager with Grind2Energy. The Browns and the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field were the first teams in their respective leagues to implement the device. Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, Tower City and Jack Casino also have units in Cleveland. (Ohio State University and the Browns were initial users of the prototype, she said.)

Cleveland-based Quasar Energy Group runs the machine. Quasar's facility sits on an old brownfield site in Collinwood. The company has 10 sites in Ohio, with a couple more coming in 2018, officials said.

Dougherty credits the companies in Cleveland for having the "organic recycling system" in place. The Browns started using it in 2013.

"We provided the technology, but they're (Cleveland partners) on the ground making it happen. This is where we started, this is where we launched our program."

How it works

For football games at FirstEnergy Stadium, half a million fans can twist through the turnstiles in the course of a season, and many will head to concessions at some point.

"We divert food scraps two different ways," Aramark General Manager Jessica Jacobson said. When the food-grinding machine went in, garbage bins were taken out. Suite attendants are instructed: Do not throw away food.

Clear bins are used during meal preparation so workers can see what will wind up in the massive machine. The "visual aids," as Jacobson calls the bins, will show if edible parts of, say, a pineapple are being tossed in when they should be used.

At the end of the night, untouched food is refrigerated; about 500 to 1,000 pounds per game will be donated to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.

Not leaving that half-eaten pile of fries in the garbage is paramount. So while fans are filing out of the stadium and players are in post-game mode, workers efficiently separate recyclable material, sorting discarded items and food scraps.

Morris "Mo" Edwards, who started as a dishwasher, is a key player in the diversion assembly line. As people file out of a 1 p.m. game, leaving their hopes and food scraps behind, Mo starts working. He carefully dumps the contents of the bins into a rectangular utility sink, squeeging every last morsel down the drain.

Since 2013, 119 tons of food has been siphoned through the stadium's Grind2Energy unit, being reused instead of winding up in a landfill. That equals enough electricity to power 43 homes for a month, or enough natural gas to heat 64 homes, Quasar says.

In 2016 alone, Aramark Executive Chef Steve Aheimer said, 35 tons came out of FirstEnergy Stadium - about 70,000 pounds. The bulk of that is from Browns games.

"Food," Aheimer said, "is heavy." A gallon of water weighs eight pounds, he said.

After each game, scores of bins full of food scraps - from fry oil to French fries, burgers to brats - are tossed down a drain and into pipes that feed the Grind2Energy unit.

A biology lesson

The unit really acts as a giant garbage disposal.

"We provide the technology to capture all of their food scraps through one system," Dougherty said. The "non-sewer based" process funnels everything through the sealed holding tank, she said, where it gets ground into slurry. Sensors monitor tank levels remotely. When capacity is neared, pickup is coordinated via Quasar for its digester in Collinwood.

"Quasar is where all the cool stuff happens," she said. "That's where all the biology happens."

Executives at Quasar say Grind2Energy helps along a process similar to what your stomach does naturally all the time: It breaks down acids. The "beneficial reuse" action in play is called "anaerobic digestion," said Renato Contipelli, the company's manager of municipal development.

"It's basic biology," he said of the process where organic materials are broken down in areas without oxygen, and gases result. The key gas to be harnessed is methane.

And the reuse part is critical: Gas that is harnessed and cleaned can be turned into energy, said Joseph Jenkins, Quasar's director of public relations and staff attorney. The process eliminates greenhouse gases and landfill waste, he said.

After the material is mixed in to Quasar's facility, "extruding all the energy potential from it takes about 25 days," Contipelli said.

That gas in turn is bought by Cleveland Public Power, he said, "so the people in Cleveland directly benefit" from what is happening. Think about that: Toss what you couldn't finish of your sausage and peppers, and you're creating energy.

You're also diverting food from landfill, Dougherty said, resulting in "a win-win-win for everybody."

As Contipelli says: "You don't get any more incentive other than you're saving the world."

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.