Brightmark Energy has closed a $260m financing package for the construction of commercial-scale plastics-to-fuel plant, to be located in Ashley, Indiana.
Image: Brightmark Energy has closed a $260m financing package to build commercial-scale plastics-to-fuel plant in Ashley, Indiana. Photo: Courtesy of Brightmark Energy.
The financing for the project Brightmark Energy Ashley Indiana includes a $185m Indiana green bonds, which were underwritten by Goldman Sachs.
As part of the financing closure, Brightmark becomes the controlling owner of RES Polyflow, the Ohio-based energy technology company that modernized the process of converting plastics into transportation fuel and other products.
The Ashley facility marks the first one to take mixed waste single-use plastics and convert them into usable products at commercial scale.
The facility is estimated to convert approximately 100,000 tons of plastics initially into more than 18million gallons of ultra-low sulfur diesel and naphtha blend stocks a year and nearly 6million gallons of commercial grade wax a year in a 93% effective process.
The company said that the outputs from this technology is also used to produce the feedstocks necessary for manufacturing plastic again, and creating the world’s first truly circular economy technology for plastics.
RES Polyflow has developed a plastics-to-fuel process that sustainably recycles waste and reached the end of its useful life, including items that cannot readily be recycled, like plastic film, flexible packing, styrofoam and children’s toys – directly into useful products, like fuels and wax.
RES Polyflow Brightmark Energy Chief Executive Officer and of Bob Powell said: “We are excited about the market’s confidence in the validity of this technology to economically convert single-use plastics for new uses. This technology provides a strong incentive for diverting single use plastics away from oceans, waterways, communities and landfills by creating reusable value. Plastic pollution is such a pressing global issue, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to provide a solution.”
Upon becoming fully operational, the facility is expected to create a total of 136 full time manufacturing jobs in Northeast Indiana. Fuels produced by the facility will be sold to BP, which will distribute them in the regional petroleum market.
Brightmark Energy and RES Polyflow plastics division president Jay Schabel said: “I’m excited to be joining a team that has the experience and capability to further the RES Polyflow technology president. The Ashley facility provides the next step in realizing our vision to end plastic pollution, and we look forward to partnering with Brightmark to develop future plastics-to-fuel projects throughout the United States.”