In Longview, a new 66,000-square-foot Integrated Diversion & Energy Facility is turning unsold and non-donatable food into renewable natural gas and nutrient-rich fertilizer instead of landfill waste. At full capacity, Divert Inc. says the plant will be able to process roughly 100,000 tons of material a year and produce enough energy to serve more than 3,200 homes, all while creating new feedstocks for farmers and keeping more of the value from uneaten food in the regional economy.
How the plant turns food into fuel
Inside the facility, Divert's system strips packaging from food and converts the contents into a bio-slurry. That slurry is fed into anaerobic digesters, where microbes go to work producing biogas that is then upgraded into pipeline-grade renewable natural gas, according to Food Manufacturing.
State permitting documents show the Longview site is designed to recover roughly 237 billion Btu of renewable natural gas each year and produce about 11,000 tons of soil amendment, while processing roughly 100,000 to 101,000 tons of food annually, according to a draft NPDES fact sheet.
Money, partners and the pipeline
Company leaders marked the official opening on April 29, and executives told reporters the plant began injecting upgraded gas into the local distribution network earlier this month, according to Waste Dive. The launch also drew regional coverage from KOIN.
Divert has lined up a cluster of heavyweight partners to back and buy from the project. A Series C funding round led by Mitsubishi Partners gave that investor first rights at future sites, while BP has secured offtake for Divert's plants, and Enbridge has provided a major investment to accelerate buildout, according to the company and an earlier Business Wire release.
Why it matters to retailers and regulators
For grocery stores, distributors and food manufacturers, the Longview plant offers a closer option for complying with Washington's organics rules and Portland's commercial food-scraps requirements, which phase in stricter diversion thresholds for businesses over time.
The Washington Department of Ecology outlines business collection requirements and maps Business Organics Management Areas across the state, according to Department of Ecology. Local retail groups say having the Longview operation in the mix should make compliance easier and more cost-effective for members, according to the Washington Retail Association.
Scale, climate benefits and what's next
Divert estimates the Longview facility's operations could offset roughly 23,000 metric tons of CO2e each year and support regional agriculture by returning nutrients to soil, according to Food Manufacturing. The site follows Divert's earlier depackaging-plus-digestion plant in Turlock, California, and the company says it is building or planning additional facilities around the country as organics mandates tighten and demand for this kind of infrastructure grows.
For Longview and nearby communities, the plant effectively becomes a test case for whether food-to-energy infrastructure can scale quickly enough to handle new organics streams while still returning value to local farms and utilities. Divert officials say the project is designed to help retailers, utilities and farmers meet state goals while creating a new local supply of renewable gas and soil amendment.
