PurposeEnergy scoops up Leyline cash to convert Ben & Jerry’s waste

Leyline Renewable Capital has partnered with PurposeEnergy to convert Ben & Jerry’s dairy waste into clean water and power.

Leyline, a provider of pre-construction debt and equity capital for renewable energy development, will facilitate the development of the SAINT project in St Albans, Vermont, that will anaerobically convert industrial food waste, including Ben & Jerry’s’ high-strength dairy waste and depackaged ice cream, into 1 MW of renewable energy.

The SAINT project will break ground this year and start processing ice cream waste in autumn next year. Once operational, the project will generate enough renewable energy to power around 1,000 homes in Vermont and will sequester phosphorous, preventing it from entering the Lake Champlain watershed.

“By providing development-stage financing to PurposeEnergy, Leyline is supporting an initiative that will not only allow PurposeEnergy to generate renewable energy for the Vermont grid but will benefit the entire St Albans’ business community,” said Erik Lensch, CEO of Leyline.

PurposeEnergy will build the anaerobic pre-treatment facility adjacent to the Ben & Jerry’s production site, which will be connected via a buried three-inch pipeline that will receive the company’s by-products for treatment, eliminating the need for hundreds of waste tanker trucks each year.

To maximise output from the digesters, PurposeEnergy will blend other feedstocks including depackaged food waste, chocolate and cheese by-products with the ice cream. As a result, other local business can also utilise the digesters.

Eric Fitch, founder and CEO of PurposeEnergy, said: “PurposeEnergy hopes to revolutionise the way food and beverage production facilities process, utilise and reclaim organic waste.

“We are grateful that Leyline provided us with the critical capital we needed to get this project started, as well as the guidance we needed to initiate the SAINT project and help Ben & Jerry’s manage its by-products sustainably.”