The Rome-Floyd Development Authority approved a resolution to begin the process of issuing $120 million in revenue bonds on behalf of Synthica Energy, which is constructing a new renewable natural gas facility.
The Cincinnati, Ohio-based renewable natural gas development company broke ground in October 2024 on the facility, located in the Northwest Regional Industrial Park at West Hermitage Road and Old Shannon Road.
According to RFDA Attorney Lee Carter, the authority is simply serving as a conduit, and there will be no burden to the taxpayers of Rome and Floyd County.
“This is part of a program under Georgia and federal law,” RFDA President and CEO Spencer Hogg said. “And there is zero liability for Floyd County residents. None. All of the liability for the bonds is with Synthica.”
Every day, tons of waste go into landfills and Synthica is banking on the idea that waste could be recycled and sold to industrial customers. It will apply an anaerobic digestion process to organic industrial byproducts to produce renewable natural gas, according to Synthica Energy CEO Sam Schutte.
That natural gas would then be injected into existing pipeline infrastructure and distributed to customers. An added benefit, according to Schutte, is that the metaphorical wasted beer, along with other organic waste products like fry grease, won’t be sitting in landfills.
“One of the tools in the development authority’s toolbox is to issue revenue bonds,” Hogg said. “That is what Synthica is asking us to do — you all to vote today to really start that process. The development authority issues the revenue bonds, but the obligation is on the company to pay this, and the limited collateral on the bonds is their revenue, thus the name revenue bonds.”
Carter explained the next step in the process.
“The bond documents will be prepared, and then ultimately, a bond validation action will be filed in the superior court to be approved by the court. Today is just the first step in this process to eventually issue the revenue bonds.”
The Rome operation will be the first of its kind in the Greater Atlanta region, according to Chris Harvey with Synthica.
“It is going to be the first dedicated food anaerobic waste digestion plant in Georgia,” he told the authority. “We will be designed for about 200-250,000 tons a year of organic waste. We will be generating enough renewable natural gas to power thousands of cars/day and to reduce CO2 emissions by over thousands of T/yr with low Carbon Intensity (CI), contributing significant environmental benefits.”
Food and beverage manufacturers, as well as other customers, will have less distance to transport their pre-consumer waste, resulting in lower transportation costs.
“We’ve strategically placed it in Rome so that we could capture the waste shed triangle between Chattanooga, Tennessee, Birmingham, Alabama, and of course, Atlanta, Georgia,” Harvey said. “We feel that there is a large amount of organic material there that really can feed our facility to generate renewable natural gas.”
Hogg said in addition to the capital investment of $100 million, the project will add jobs that pay more than $37 per hour.
“This checks all the boxes for us,” Hogg said. “It provides investment, good-paying jobs, and grows our tax base. Check, check and check.”