In the Spotlight 'Do something good': Johnstown native seeks Fulbright Scholarship to study wastewater energy in Europe

Mar. 17—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — By Jeffrey Hammer's account, he's an average guy who has had a lot of luck in his 63 years.

Recently, that luck has extended to contending for a Fulbright Scholarship to study a European energy process that he thinks could transform his hometown of Johnstown.

Hammer has applied and made it through several steps of the Fulbright-Schuman Innovation Award contention — even garnering support abroad from the University of Salzburg and the nonprofit Salzburg Global Seminar in Austria, and from companies including UHRIG and Rabmer Group.

"While I'm still on the planet, I want to do something good that will have an impact," Hammer said.

That's why the Fox Chapel resident applied to study Europe's implementation of wastewater processes converted into energy.

His goal is to bring the thermal energy collection operation to the United States and possibly to Johns-town, where he imagines it could do some good for residents' utilities bills.

"There is a massive energy potential in wastewater, which is available in our sewers all the time and in large quantities," according to UHRIG documents. "Wastewater has an average temperature of 50 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit in winter and between 63 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit in summer.

"This temperature represents heat or thermal energy that can be used to heat buildings in winter and cool them in summer."

Using heat pump-based technology, UHRIG claims, "wastewater can achieve a net energy cost of about 7 cents per kilowatt" and is well-suited for cities and urban areas.

'Energy from wastewater'

Hammer was introduced to the technology, which he says has been around in Europe for roughly four decades, when he worked for UHRIG.

He was hired by the German company in 2019 to raise awareness about the wastewater energy process and to court companies in the United States to get on board. But every company he met with turned him down, stating the technology didn't have a proof of concept, Hammer said.

Four years later, Hammer officially retired. That's when he remembered an old college professor who had amassed several Fulbright Scholarships and decided to apply for one himself.

"I would love to experience it," Hammer said of the program.

He determined that the Fulbright-Schuman Innovation Award best fit his needs and began the application in August.

According to the scholarship website, the Fulbright-Schuman Innovation Award is provided to one American scholar per year and is designed to "support research at the intersection of policy and technology that can improve the transatlantic understanding of issues at the heart of the U.S. and E.U. relationship."

Hammer applied for a four-month study in Germany and Austria, where the wastewater technology was created and pioneered.

"I want to mainstream energy from wastewater in the United States," he said.

That piqued the interest of his overseas supporters.

"We were intrigued by his project because there is growing recognition of the potential benefits of wastewater energy production in terms of renewable energy generation, resource recovery, environmental sustainability and energy security — all key policy objectives and imperatives of our current time," Salzburg Global Seminar Deputy CEO Benjamin Glahn said.

"Jeff's idea to look at the policy and regulatory approaches in Austria and how they might be pertinent to the U.S. context is something that was highly interesting to us and that we thought worth supporting in the context of Jeff's Fulbright application. We hope he is successful."

Hammer will receive the final decision on his application in May or June, he said, and still has several interviews to complete before that. If he is successful, he'll spend a few months with European companies such as UHRIG, studying their system before returning and starting the work in the United States.

Hammer has a longstanding relationship with Salzburg, Austria, having traveled there during his college days and returning afterward.

The 1979 Ferndale Area High School graduate went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania to earn a bachelor's degree in finance.

During his junior year at IUP, he entered a study abroad program at the University of Salzburg, and in his senior year, he participated in a work-abroad program at the school. When applying for the Fulbright Scholarship, he remembered Salzburg and wanted to return there for his studies, he said.

In addition to possibly bringing European wastewater policy to the U.S., Hammer said he hopes his life's work can serve as an inspiration to others, especially youth in his hometown.

Hammer's family started out in the Oakhurst Homes section of Johnstown before settling in Ferndale.

He said he never had impeccable grades, but got an education and has since worked on Wall Street, assisted with Joseph Kennedy's 1986 congressional campaign, earned a graduate degree from Harvard Business School Executive Education, and worked for several energy companies, including a stint as global energy manager for World Fuel Services Corp.

"I've had so many crazy things happen in my life," Hammer said.

He hopes to add to that list with the Fulbright Scholarship.