Archer Western Construction will construct a waste-to-energy facility for Synthica Energy in San Antonio with the capacity to process up to 250,000 tons of industrial organic waste into renewable natural gas (RNG) annually.
Announcing its limited Notice to Proceed from San Antonio, Archer Western says it was initially selected to provide preliminary services support, including design and constructability review, cost estimating, value engineering, evaluation of alternative construction means and methods, procurement support and construction schedule optimization.
Synthica’s San Antonio facility will process pre-consumer food and industrial organic waste via anaerobic digestion treatment processes, generating biogas to be further upgraded into RNG. Utilizing up to 250,000 tons of waste, the company projects creating 400,000 MMBtu (million British thermal units) of pipeline-quality RNG each year.
The facility will accept products like expired and damaged produce, byproducts from biodiesel production, spent yeast and high-strength wastewater. The $50-million project is set to break ground this year and begin production in the first quarter of 2026.
RNG produced at the facility will be injected into a nearby pipeline, displacing the use of fossil fuels, according to Archer Western’s announcement.
Synthica is also developing a $50-million project in Atlanta that broke ground earlier this month that also is expected to accept 250,000 tons of waste per year for an output of 400,000 MMBtu of RNG. That facility is set to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The company's St. Bernard plant project near Cincinnati—also valued at $50 million—is under construction and set to open in early 2025, with a processing capacity of 190,000 tons of waste annually. Another project, in Houston, is in the permitting phase, and is set for an early 2025 groundbreaking and early 2026 operation.
Craig Thompson, technical project director for Synthica, says in a release that Archer Western helped the company make crucial design decisions and maximize project value throughout the pre-construction phase.
“Their exceptional experience in the water/wastewater sector, and superior foothold in the San Antonio market, made them the ideal partner for us on this project,” he says.
