March 2025

March 2025

Inside the Newsletter:

Intern Interview | School Waste & Recycling | Semi-Automation | Events | Funding Opportunities

Q & A with a Former MnTAP Intern: Olajumobi Akeeb

headshot of Olajumobi

The MnTAP Intern Program recruits undergraduate and graduate students interested in building first-hand experience and practical expertise on water conservation, energy efficiency, pollution prevention, and sustainable chemical solutions. These interns spend up to 500 hours working for host facilities in a variety of sectors – such as government, health care systems, metal finishing and other manufacturing, and food processing –with guidance from a MnTAP engineer or scientist and an on-site supervisor. At the end of the summer, MnTAP interns produce recommendations that are presented to company staff, compiled in a comprehensive report, presented to the public at the MnTAP Symposium, and written up in a two-page summary published in Solutions.

Since the intern program began in 1985, 367 interns have participated. Recently, we caught up with some former MnTAP interns and learned more about where they are now. The first person we interviewed was Olajumobi Akeeb, who currently is an Associate Energy Engineer at Michaels Energy working on ComED’s Commercial/Industrial Custom Program.

Olajumobi is unique in that she participated in two MnTAP internships. In 2020, Olajumobi found significant energy-saving practices for the University of Minnesota Physicians. At Olajumobi’s next internship at Clearway Energy in 2022, she focused on both water conservation and energy efficiency opportunities, including cooling tower water reuse and installing variable frequency drives (VFD) for energy-intensive processes.

In this Q&A, we connect with Olajumobi to talk about her current work, her past MnTAP internships and what she took away from them, and how other companies can benefit from current and former MnTAP interns. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Could you describe your current role?

I work at Michaels Energy in the Chicago office. Most of us work on energy efficiency projects for the electric and gas utilities, like ComEd and Ameren, in the area. My primary role, or what I was hired for, is to work on the custom energy efficiency program for ComEd. ComEd, as a utility, has clients that buy energy from them. If they have projects that they’d like to do energy efficiency-wise, a company can submit those as potential projects for review and custom program support. These come to us to evaluate potential savings in costs and energy. This includes the payback period and coming up with a measurement and verification (M&V) plan. That’s what I do day to day. I work on engineering calculations, measurements, and verifications before and after the project is complete. I go on some site visits to talk to customers and see what they have, what they will replace, or what they have replaced.

Thinking back on your MnTAP projects, could you describe what you worked on?

The first project was at a hospital and focused mostly on energy efficiency, which was great for me. The project included recommending installing advanced power strips and putting computers on sleep mode for any required daily updates. Hospitals have critical systems that you can’t just shut off, so that was a very unique project to work on and see from the inside what can be done. It was a good introduction to energy efficiency.

The second project was at an energy facility making steam, hot water and chilled water for buildings in downtown Minneapolis. It had some energy efficiency aspects to it, but it was mostly water use reduction and wastewater reduction because they use a lot of water at that facility. So, I got to work on a different side of the sustainability projects at that facility.

What skills did you learn or hone while working on your MnTAP project?

The first project in 2020 at the hospital was more closely in line with what I do now on energy efficiency related to electric energy but also some gas savings too. As a MnTAP intern, we go to a site or facility. We must see the big picture and then find little things that we can adjust.

For the type of work I do now, standalone projects come to me, and different projects at different facilities. Being able to see the big picture is a strength. Usually, the customer has a project in mind, and that comes to me as a reviewing engineer. And I get to say, “Oh, what about this? Have you thought about doing this at the facility? Since we’re looking at this opportunity, can we come on site, do an audit, and see if there is anything else we can find for energy savings?”

Being a MnTAP intern, who learned to go to a facility and go through a list of energy saving recommendations to see which ones fit, was definitely a skill that I brought to Michaels Energy. Because while I work on custom projects, which are like one-off projects, I also carried out energy audits. So that was basically doing what an intern did over 3 months in one day but at a high level without going into too much depth. Basically, what I did over the whole internship continues to be activities that I apply to my job every day.

What, if any, values or commitments do you still practice from your MnTAP internship?

The value of finding affordable ways for customers or clients to save energy without impacting what they do already. We don’t want their businesses or their processes to suffer because of the recommendations we make. Being cost effective is something we also have to keep in mind, so our recommendations make sense for them financially.

When I used to work on audits, I had to first come up with ideas that the customer is willing to implement and recommendations they could afford to implement before introducing things with bigger capital costs that they potentially wouldn’t consider. For my current work on custom projects, they’ve already decided to do it. We just have to find a way to account for every single saving opportunity available.

How did participating in the two MnTAP internships shape your understanding of what kind of career you eventually pursued?

That’s my favorite question of this list because before MnTAP, I didn’t know that’s what I wanted to do. Prior to MnTAP, I had already applied to graduate school and that was the plan for fall of 2020. I knew I wanted to do something related to sustainability. I thought maybe I’d go into process engineering and work on continuous improvement or be a sustainability officer for some company somewhere.

But after my MnTAP interview with Matt Domski and Taylor Borgfeldt, I still remember this so vividly because it made such an impact on me. It was towards the end where she was like, “Oh we have this other project. It’s not like what we usually do because it is on energy efficiency. But would you be interested?” And I was like, “Yeah sure, that sounds interesting.” I didn’t know what energy efficiency was, but it sounded pretty cool.

After I started the project and looked things up, it was like, “Oh, this makes sense. This is what I want to do.” It clicked for me. That’s how I knew that even if I was still interested in going to graduate school to do research after I graduated from that program, energy efficiency was what I wanted to do. I didn’t know where or how, but the internship was what did it for me. MnTAP helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my life basically.

Given your experiences, how would hiring a current or former MnTAP intern benefit your team or other professionals working in your area?

Well for my company specifically, if my company was looking for entry-level engineers for the work we do, former MnTAP interns would have a leg up on a lot of other people graduating right now. Meaning people with degrees but no specific internship experience like the one MnTAP provides.

I think hiring a former MnTAP intern as an entry-level engineer is the best move because they’re already coming in with the knowledge. They’ve experienced this on a small scale, so they already have an idea of what to look for. They know how to work with clients, how to communicate, and how to write technical reports, which are all aspects of what we do when going on site.

For a lot of our projects, you have to be on site with the customer or company. So, former MnTAP interns having familiarity and knowing what to look for is a huge plus because that can be a lot to learn. There’s a huge learning curve if you don’t know what you’re doing, and even when you do, it’s still a lot to take in.

For current interns, it’s also a leg up if it’s a MnTAP intern versus anybody else. Interns can come in and find savings around energy, water, and waste reduction. I think it’s a great way to have somebody come in and just figure out what the company’s potential is, and the company can decide what they want to do after the intern leaves.

Conclusion

If you are a student interested in an experience like Olajumobi’s or are a company/organization interested in gaining the help and expertise of a MnTAP Intern, learn more about the program here. MnTAP Interns gain practical, on-the-job training while making a difference. Host facilities benefit from recommendations that have led them to save money; reduce waste or use of water, energy, and chemicals; and become overall more environmentally sustainable.

This program is also accessible for smaller to medium-sized businesses with an affordable cost share (i.e., $4,000) and realistic expectations (e.g., 3 to 5 hours of supervision for the first 2 to 3 weeks of onboarding that typically drops down to 1 to 3 hours per week for the rest of the project) to host an intern. For questions on all aspects of the MnTAP Intern Program, please email or call Matt Domski.

Contact:

Matt Domski – Waste Prevention Specialist/Intern Program Manager
  mdomski@umn.edu
612-624-5119

MnTAP School Waste and Recycling Work in Hennepin County

pile of food waste from school

In May 2024, MnTAP began a project with Hennepin County K-12 schools, colleges, and universities to deliver waste and recycling technical assistance. Through this project, MnTAP has been able to use our areas of expertise in pollution prevention and waste reduction to assist schools and educate students and staff.

Services MnTAP has provided in this project include:

  • Conducting waste audits with green teams to better understand the reduction and diversion potential for various material streams in the school cafeteria.
  • Meeting with student green teams and staff ambassadors to discuss sustainability topics.
  • Touring schools with staff to get a sense for where organics, recycling, and trash bins exist or are co-located, and noting the various types of dumpsters.
  • Sharing recommendations with district-level nutrition and facilities staff and principals and addressing barriers to implementation.
  • Examining obstacles schools face to donate reusable items they no longer need.
  • Analyzing potential for bulk milk or condiment dispensers in lieu of single-use cartons or packets, and the storage capacity for reusables.
  • Assisting schools with grant applications. Hennepin County currently offers $150,000 per year to schools for waste- and recycling-related activities.

One service that has provided important data for the schools is waste audits. Waste audits are critical to understanding how materials flow throughout a facility, which in this case is the cafeteria. When performing an audit, we first consult with the staff in back-of-house operations (back-of-house refers to the kitchen space where food is prepped before being served to students and staff). Common questions include:

  • What waste is disposed of from back-of-house at the end of the lunch period?
  • Are there after-school programs with food served?
  • Does the school have a share table?

Next, our team observes various lunch periods occurring over 1 to 2 hours, noting where students disposed of uneaten food, trays, utensils, and napkins. Sometimes staff and students will approach us with questions, and this engagement makes our waste work more visible. Finally, we conduct the waste audit after lunch is over (with green team members if they are interested). We ask custodians to hold the bags from breakfast and lunch in a large toter so that we can assess the waste stream in its entirety.

There are five buckets for a waste audit that we separate items into:

  • Trash – typically wrappers, packaging, and single-use utensils.
  • Recycling – typically plastics, paper, metals, glass, and cardboard.
  • Liquids poured out from milk cartons, soda cans, and juice pouches.
  • Share table (i.e., unopened food items in packaging).
  • Compost (e.g., compostables such as plates and wares, and uneaten but opened food items).

We calculate the total weight associated with each of these categories and note what percentage of contamination is present in the various bags. Schools should divert materials into recycling bins with blue or clear bags inside and organics bins with green BPI-certified bags inside. Using different colored bags for different material streams makes it easier for custodial staff to visually separate them at the dumpsters when they take them outside after breakfast and lunch periods. Schools should have clear and appropriately colored signage (e.g., blue for recycling, green for organics, and black for trash) and bins should be co-located (i.e., recycling next to organics next to trash) to increase diversion.

Overall, our waste audits at elementary, middle, and high schools show that roughly 85 to 95% of materials can be diverted from the trash. This is important, because trash is taxed at 38.5% (i.e., 21.5% for county solid waste management fee and 17% for state tax) in Hennepin County for commercial entities, which includes schools. Therefore, any material that is not diverted to recycling or organics costs the school an extra tax on top of what they pay for pickup to service the trash dumpster. We highlight this cost in our meetings with green teams and school leaders.

Changing behavior in the cafeteria with appropriate signage and consistent education to students and staff can lead to better outcomes, including higher diversion rates and reduced hauling expenses. Where applicable, MnTAP tries to reduce costs through reducing excess food prep in the kitchen and switching from single-use utensils and cartons to reusables and bulk milk dispensers, respectively. These opportunities can lead to beneficial environmental and economic outcomes.

In our next article in May, we will cover the results from year one of this project. If you know of a school that is interested in MnTAP’s no-cost technical assistance with waste reduction and diversion and energy and water conservation, please contact Jon Schroeder. We are here to assist the next generation of sustainable leaders!

Jon Schroeder – Sustainable Materials Management Specialist
jschro@umn.edu
612-624-4645

Semi-automation in Rinsing and Water Treatment

collage of 3 pictures upper left is 2 nozles lower left is conveyor belt with bottles right is worker in white protective suit rinsing floorReducing water use can lead to multiple benefits. Conserving water means companies may save money from not just having lower water bills but also spending less on water treatment and energy used to heat or pump water. Groundwater is also a limited resource in parts of Minnesota. For instance, Northeast Minnesota’s geology makes groundwater less accessible (MPCA). In the Twin Cities Metro area, the high demand for water is already compromising local groundwater availability (MPCA). Making processes more water efficient today can help protect the water supply that companies, their communities, and the ecosystems surrounding them rely on into the future.

There are many ways to conserve water, and one strategy is to incorporate automation in water-intensive processes. Automation can be defined as using technology, robotics, or programming to achieve outcomes with minimal human assistance (IBM). Given automation’s potential to make processes more accurate, fast, or efficient, automation has been used across different sectors. In fact, the inspiration for this article came from reviewing the last five years of MnTAP intern projects and realizing how often interns made automation recommendations to conserve water. These recommendations showed up in a variety of manufacturing fields (i.e., medical device, food and beverage, and metal finishing) along with healthcare services, sports facilities, and government agencies.

Another theme that came up during this analysis of past MnTAP intern projects was that all recommendations focused on semi-automation versus fully automated systems. Semi-automation is when some steps of a process or system are automated while other steps continue to require human labor or decision-making. MnTAP interns consistently pinpointed automation opportunities to cover specific repetitive tasks (rather than automating an entire system) or recommended water-saving steps that employees could incorporate into their daily workflow.

This article will take an in-depth dive into two areas, rinsing and water treatment, for semi-automating water use in manufacturing.

Rinsing

During rinsing, water is used for a variety of purposes, such as cleaning surfaces, raw materials like soil on produce, and the containers of final products. If chemicals are used in the cleaning process, a thorough rinse at the end can help eliminate any remaining cleaning agents before the next step of production.  The MnTAP interns generally recommended looking into semi-automation solutions to adjust water flow, add water, or turn water off promptly.

Rinsing Systems Identified for Semi-automation

  • Clean-in-place systems
  • Rinse tanks (metal finishing)
  • Spraying systems for conveyor belts
  • Can or bottle rinsing systems

  • Adjusting water flow or adding water: sensors can take highly accurate measurements on the purity or clarity of water in real time. When these sensors are paired with automated valves, these valves can instantaneously adjust water flow rate and direction or add water once a predetermined value has been reached. This ensures no delays in adjustment and that the correct amount of water is used to perform each task. Some examples of sensors and valves include:
    • A conductivity control, which tests the purity of rinse water, is paired with a solenoid valve. Once the conductivity reaches a preset value, the solenoid valve will add water to the tank.
    • An optic sensor paired with a three-way valve was used for a piece of equipment that switches between sanitizing two different products. This shared equipment had to be directed to the drain and rinsed with softened water before each switch to avoid cross contamination. To rinse it, the optic sensor would sense the clearness of the water and direct the three-way valve to change direction of the flow once all the leftover residue was cleared away.
    • Motion sensors, flow orifices, and solenoid valves were recommended to free staff from having to continually operate hand valves and maintain a consistent, controlled flow rate through the system.
    • An automatic hydraulic flow control valve was recommended to keep the flow at a constant rate at a nine-stage can washer.
  • Turning water off: In one company, sprayers were timed to turn on whenever the conveyor belt was moving even if there were no raw materials on the belt. Adjusting the programmatic logic could save water by automatically shutting down the belts whenever there were no raw products to be rinsed.

Water Treatment

Most manufacturers soften and/or deionize their well water to reduce equipment scaling or prepare their raw materials to be used in final products. For systems with filters that require backwashing, turbidity sensors—which automatically measure the haziness of a liquid—can be installed and track the exact moment when the water being treated has reached a desired turbidity value. By automatically and promptly stopping water treatment once this value is achieved, significant water savings in reducing backwash time can be achieved.

If any of the recommendations presented here are of interest, MnTAP staff are available to carry out site visits and consultations on water conservation strategies, including automation. All MnTAP staff services are confidential, at no cost, and non-regulatory. When more in-depth assistance is needed, the MnTAP intern program provides extended, hands-on assistance for a nominal cost-share.

Author:

Jocelyn Leung- Communications Specialist

Contact

Gabrielle Martin- Engineer
gamartin@umn.edu
612-625-4027

Events

Minnesota NRS: Interactive water quality maps

March 21, 2025, 1:30-2:30 PM
Virtual, No-cost

Experts will demonstrate Minnesota’s free, interactive water quality maps. You will learn how to view online data detailing annual changes in nutrient levels. These interactive maps are part of an update to the statewide Nutrient Reduction Strategy that Minnesota launched in 2014 to address nutrient pollution. Learn more and register for this information session.

Smart Salting: Parking Lots and Sidewalks Certification Training

March 25, 2025, 8:00 AM-1:30 PM
Virtual, No-Cost

This training is offered by MPCA to private winter maintenance companies and city, park, hospital, and school maintenance professionals. Participants earn a five-year certification for attending this training and passing the test. Learn more about this training and register for the March 25 training course.

Funding Opportunities