NEWTON, ILL. — St. Joseph Renewable Fuels LLC has unveiled plans to build a $400 million renewable diesel plant in Newton, located within Jasper County in southern Illinois. The 40-acre site is within a federally designated opportunity zone.
The proposed plant will bring new sources of renewable fuels to metropolitan, rural and underserved communities. It will consume waste fats and greases from a region spanning 1,000 miles around Newton that would otherwise be landfilled or emptied into sewer drains. The plant will convert the waste into 90 million gallons of diesel and naphtha fuel annually as well as 7 million gallons of technical grade glycerin.
Project financing comes from New York-based specialty finance firm Lance Capital and its New Zealand joint venture partner, Lance-Kamaka Capital Ltd. Plans call for the use of a new app called HealthCheckIn that will test the workforce for COVID-19. Other partners include Cyberus Labs and a joint venture between McDermott and Chevron Oil, which will be involved in the core technology of the renewable fuels produced.
The project will create 100 permanent jobs in the Newton community, 200 construction jobs for the duration of the two-year project and 300 trucking jobs throughout the state of Illinois once the plant is commissioned and operating. Financial closing and groundbreaking are slated for the fourth quarter of this year.