Newlight to build its AirCarbon facility in Ohio

Newlight Technologies has entered into various agreements with Long Ridge Energy Terminal, which is jointly owned by a subsidiary of Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure (FTAI) Investors LLC and an affiliate managed by GCM Grovesnor, to build and operate a new facility in Hannibal, Ohio, to produce the company’s Aircarbon® biomaterial made from PHB (poly-3-hydroxybutyrate). This is considered the most common form of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) for those unfamiliar with PHB.  Newlight considers itself the first company to directly transform greenhouse gases into PHB at a commercial scale with its Eagle 3 Aircarbon® facility in California that started in 2020. The capacity for the new site in Ohio was not disclosed.

Newlight’s Eagle 3 Facility

The company’s current customers and partners include Shake Shack, Nike, Target, H&M, Ben & Jerry’s, Sumitomo, US Foods and Sysco. Initial applications are in the foodware market, starting with straws, cutlery and coated paper products. The company is also seeding expansion in automotive and fashion applications. Aircarbon® competes on performance with various grades of polypropylene.

Long Ridge will lease the land and sell power and gas to Newlight. A subsidiary of FTAI has agreed to invest 25% of the project costs, or up to $75 million to participate in the economic returns associated with the project.  In a separate deal, Newlight has announced a partnership with Pittsburgh-based CNX Resources Corp. for a 15-year supply of captured methane from third-party industrial activity that would typically be vented to the atmosphere. CNX will gather, process and deliver the methane through new and existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure, and Newlight will acquire contractual rights to a portion of the captured methane, similar to how solar, wind and renewable natural gas are delivered contractually through new and existing grid infrastructure.

The captured methane supply deal is expected to result in several manufacturing facilities in the Appalachian region and advance critical decarbonisation goals while boosting economic activity, capital investment and job growth in the area, according to CNX. The greenhouse gas feedstock that will support production at the Ohio facility is also expected to include, over time, methane from anaerobic digestion of food and agricultural waste as well as carbon dioxide from energy facilities and direct air capture.

Newlight has contracted Black & Veatch for EPC and to design the Aircarbon®-Ohio plant.