Exec: Sustainea bullish on Lafayette, future workforce for $400M plant
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The chief business officer for Brazil-based Sustainea says Lafayette was the ideal choice for the company to build its first renewable chemical plant for multiple reasons.
The company last week announced it would invest $400 million to build the plant next to Illinois-based Primient’s production facility and create nearly 200 jobs.
The plant will be used to produce Bio-MEG, a renewable alternative to monoethylene glycol that can be used in various products such as beverage bottles, food containers and footwear.
Everton Van Dal told Inside INdiana Business that Lafayette was selected after a comprehensive site selection process that evaluated locations around the globe.
“This includes many variables: the sustainable carbon footprint, the very high efficiency that Primient has in their corn plant in Lafayette, but also factors [such as] the local talent available, the infrastructure that we’ll have available in Lafayette, as well as the state and local incentives that we received,” Van Dal said.
The project is part of a co-location agreement that Sustainea reached with Primient, which will provide corn dextrose produced at its facility for Sustainea to use in its Bio-MEG production.
“We’re going to have access to a very low-carbon footprint feedstock,” Van Dal said. “The partnership with Primient and the common strategic vision, long term vision of decarbonization and growth are very well aligned between the two companies.”
While the engineering details are still being ironed out, Van Dal said the Lafayette plant could produce around 100,000 tons of Bio-MEG per year. It’s part of the company’s overall goal to build three production facilities with a total annual capacity of 700,000 tons.
Van Dal also noted that the company is confident it will be able to find the workforce it needs to fill the planned 191 jobs.
“We think there is a good talent pool coming from the local universities and the local community colleges,” he said. “So we see there’s a sizable amount of people that could fulfill our our jobs.”
Van Dal says the company aims to break ground on the plant in 2026, with operations expected to begin in 2028.