Dive Brief:
- Nexus W2V received a $75 million commitment from Orion Infrastructure Capital to build its flagship RNG facility in La Porte, Indiana, the company announced Tuesday. It now plans to proceed with construction.
- The facility is expected to convert 200 tons of organic waste daily into renewable natural gas and other coproducts like biochar, organic fertilizer and compost. The company declined to name feedstock partners.
- Nexus plans to bring the Kingsbury Bioenergy Complex online by the end of 2026. It will be the first facility that Nexus builds from the ground up.
Dive Insight:
Texas-based Nexus W2V is part of a broader family of companies focused on wraparound services for waste-to-value operators. The company was founded in 2013 but took in its first round of outside financing last year — a $50 million growth equity round led by Greenbacker Capital Management, Ontario Power Generation Pension Fund and Liberty Mutual Insurance.
A portion of last year's funding round went toward expanding Nexus W2V and its carbon capture and storage development business Pathway Energy.
The company began as an advisory firm, but it now includes services such as front-end engineering and technical design services. It has previously acquired a partial stake in a biomass-fired power plant in British Columbia through its distressed asset investment business.
In addition to the funding from Orion, investments from Khasma Capital, Sterling Bank, Ameris Bank and Nexus Holdings will go toward the Kingsbury facility.
"In conjunction with our newly forged capital partnership, Nexus W2V is well prepared to deliver industry-leading projects in the waste-to-value sector across North America," Chris Leary, investment partner and head of infrastructure equity at Orion, said in a statement. "OIC is excited to play a part in deploying these innovative solutions supporting sustainable landfill diversion and the reduction of associated emissions."
The facility will receive packaged food from “a network of waste-handling partners who manage several times” the facility’s capacity, Nexus W2V CEO Roshan Vani said in a statement. It will be able to accept “food scraps, food byproducts, agricultural biomass, fats, oils and other nonhazardous food waste,” according to Vani.
The facility is about 70 miles outside of Chicago. Nexus struck a partnership to inject the RNG into northern Indiana's existing pipeline system.
"The Kingsbury Bioenergy Complex will offer the greater Chicago area and western Indiana a long-term solution to their organic waste disposal needs,” Vani said. “It’s the first in a series of waste-to-value projects that Nexus W2V has planned nationwide and serves as a blueprint for how we plan to think about the waste-to-value ecosystem."
