Gustavus Adolphus College CASE STUDY

Gustavus Adolphus College is a small, liberal arts college located in St. Peter, Minnesota. The college envisioned an on-campus, integrated compost and greenhouse program to support diverting food scraps away from the landfill and growing healthy food on site into the cold season. This unique project required using the heat generated from the composting process to heat a greenhouse and thereby extend the growing season into the cold Minnesota winters. The plant waste generated from the greenhouse is then turned into compost, creating a fully circular operation.

After researching multiple technologies and consulting companies, Gustavus selected GMT to design a custom 24’ Steel Earth Flow vessel. The composting vessel was installed directly inside the greenhouse, allowing for residual heat from the composting process to travel into the greenhouse, thereby reducing the cost of heating. The biofilter is also inside the greenhouse, providing C02 from compost which enhances plant growth. The 24’ Custom Steel Earth Flow can receive up to about 1 ton of total feedstocks per day and has allowed Gustavus to lower their waste management costs, provide an educational experience for their students and extend their greenhouse growing season, even in harsh Minnesota winters.