ST. MARYS - The first of what could be a series of methane digesters here to turn animal waste into energy will receive a $1 million award from a U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service grant, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said Monday.

Grand Lake St. Marys would be the beneficiary as animal waste that now flows into the lake from feeder streams, firing up toxic cyanobacteria blooms that have at times shut down the lake, is converted into methane gas.

“Not only will this help clean up the Lake, it will also help create jobs in the clean energy industry. This project will serve as a national model for an innovative solution to clean up toxic algae blooms creating jobs and provide consumers with a source of clean, domestic energy,” Brown said. “Grand Lake St. Marys has been an economic anchor of Mercer and Auglaize counties and I remain committed to pursuing all possible solutions to restore it.”

Mel Kurtz, president of Ohio company quasar energy group, said the project will also show how to solve such problems elsewhere.

“We will be working to make the situation better by creating a portable technology to separate nutrients and remove them from the watershed. This project will not only be about impacting the region – but about demonstrating a technology that will benefit every farmer and every waste water treatment plant that is struggling with a nutrient management issue,” Kurtz said.

Methane digestion converts organic matter in manure into methane, a biogas. Methane can be used for heating and converted to electricity or compressed natural gas, an alternative motor vehicle fuel, Brown said.

Caroline Henry, vice president for marketing at quasar, which is based in Independence, said hopes are that construction could begin in 2012.

The company said the digester would be 825,000 gallons in size. It will process manure and food waste with at least 50 percent comprised of manure generated from within the watershed. Approximately 60 wet tons of manure will be taken in each day. A similar facility in Zanesville processes organic waste under agreements with regional treatment plants, food processing plants and grease trap disposal companies.

The grant from the USDA will supplement the cost of extracting nutrients from the waste and processing it into fertilizer that will be shipped outside the watershed, Henry said.