KINGSBURY, Ind. – A $70 million plant converting primarily food and crop waste into natural gas and nutrients for soil will be constructed in Indiana.

The plan includes another $70 million investment on an expansion once the facility at Kingsbury Industrial Park is operating.

Ground has been broken on the Kingsbury Bioenergy Complex, which is scheduled for completion late next year.

The plan, in the northwest part of the state, will be owned and operated by Nexus W2V, a leading waste processing solutions firm based in Greenville, S.C.

“This is a decisive step toward a future where waste is transformed into a valuable resource,” said CEO of the company, Roshan Vani.

The plant will be able to process up to 200 tons of organic material like expired ingredients at major food processing plants for use in converting it into natural gas.

According to company officials, the facility will produce enough natural gas to operate more than 47,000 homes while reducing the amount of waste going into landfills.

“Indiana continues to lead the nation in attracting forward thinking investments in energy and waste management solutions,” said State Rep. Jim Pressel, of Rolling Prairie.

Vani said a lot of the organic material will come from processors of edible products in the Chicagoland area whose food and ingredients never made it to the stores due to spoilage or expiring.

He said supermarket chains in the region will also be a supplier of packaged foods like cake mixes and cereal no longer available for sale.

In addition, Vani said the company, working through brokers and directly with farmers, if necessary, will secure the rights to crops such as potatoes and pumpkins that never made it to market.

“We already have a network of great brokers that already are networked with haulers where we can figure out ways to come get large volumes of organic waste,” he said.

Food-related fats, oils and greases, along with expired soda pop, are among the other materials that will be accepted into the plant.

Some of the projected 35 workers to be hired at the plant, initially, will remove food from packaged items for placement into a digester where all organic material will be mixed with water or some other liquid and then heated.

The methane created from decomposition of the slurry will be captured and injected into existing NIPSCO natural gas pipelines for use by consumers.

“We have equipment that cleans that methane to get it to a pipeline quality gas,” he said.

The remaining nutrient-rich solids will be extracted from the digester and allowed to dry before processed into a bio-char product similar to potash.

He said the bio-char product will be available for sale to customers such as farmers, gardeners and landscapers for use to improve the health of their soils.

Vani doesn’t expect any shortage of supply, citing figures that indicate more than 40 percent of food produced in the U.S. is discarded.

“We’ve really been thoughtful on our receiving base side on how we can slide into the market with the existing eco-system,” he said.

Right now, Vani said the plan is to bring the food waste into the plant mostly on semi-trucks. Freight trains as an option are still being explored.

An existing CSX rail line at the park can be used to move product, but would require a rail extension from the plant.

He said the facility will also have an odor control system to eliminate any foul smells emitting from the plant.

Matt Reardon, in charge of economic development for La Porte County government, said the facility, to be in the southeast corner of the industrial park, has been several years in the making.

He said the project followed a process that included site selection, finding a buyer for the gas along with zoning approval.

“That’s a big investment by all measures and we’re certainly happy to have that,” he said.