University of Notre Dame
PRE-2: Points of Distinction

The University has installed three Grind2Energy systems, each consisting of a processing sink, grinder, and 5,000-gallon outdoor holding tank.

The holding tank, anchored to a concrete pad, stands about 15 feet tall. It is heated from the inside to keep the contents from freezing. A heated cover also helps to insulate the tank from the cold.

When it’s time to empty the tank, a septic hauler attaches a hose to a valve at the bottom of the tank, pumps the waste into a septic truck, and then transports it to a local farm where it is converted to energy. Excluding transport, the process takes about 20 minutes. A “seed” of waste is left behind in the tank as a starter for the next batch of slurry. Noise and odor are minimal.

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The waste counts as a donation to the farm, though it saves the University money in the form of lower trash hauling costs.

Combined, the three systems reduce nonconsumable food waste from the two dining halls and the Center for Culinary Excellence by 99 percent. They will reduce overall waste, campuswide, by 10 percent, or 700,000 pounds per year. That’s waste that otherwise would combine with other trash to produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas, in local landfills.

Campus Dining previously partnered with LeanPath, a global food-waste service, to reduce pre-consumer food waste related to overproduction, spoilage, trimmings, overcooking or contamination by 30 percent across both dining halls and the Center for Culinary Excellence.

University staff and students combined forces to pull garlic mustard (a prolific invasive species) in the woodland area between the two lakes on campus. Normally, such a project would result in the plants being sent to the landfill (as a best practice to avoid plants going to seed and inadvertent spreading of seed either in the woods or in a compost pile. However, we utilized the Grind2Energy technology of Campus Dining to grind the plants and the ultimate contribution toward natural gas production.

In 2021, we were able to pull 518 pounds of garlic mustard, divert it from the landfill, and make it ready for natural gas generation.

The rainy weather caused relatively low student turnout, but it was still a positive experience for those that helped and we look forward to future projects.

A division of American Electric Power, I&M broke ground on the facility in July of 2020. Construction concluded in January 2021, followed by start-up and performance testing in February. It opened in late March.

Consisting of nearly 60,000 photovoltaic solar panels, the facility is I&M’s largest solar installation, able to generate 20 megawatts of clean, renewable energy annually, or enough to power an average of 2,700 homes.

As a partner in the project, Notre Dame has agreed to purchase 40 percent of that energy — equal to about 10 percent of the University’s annual need for electricity — in the form of clean energy credits, which it will use to offset carbon emissions and improve air quality in South Bend and the surrounding community.

Notre Dame has also agreed to work with I&M to capitalize on the educational and research benefits of the facility, which sits at the northeast corner of Bittersweet and Cleveland roads on converted farmland that once belonged to Notre Dame.