Waste Management takes equity stake in Bend's InEnTec

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Waste Management continues to invest in waste-to-energy technology, most recently through a stake in Bend-based InEnTec.

Waste Management Inc. on Wednesday said it has taken an equity position in InEnTec Inc., a Bend-based developer of waste-to-gas technology.

Houston-based Waste Management (NYSE: WM), the world's largest solid waste company, said the deal replaces its equity position in S4 Energy Solutions LLC, a 50-50 joint venture it formed with InEnTec in 2009.

"Changing our investment from a joint venture development into an equity position with InEnTec is more consistent with the company's other portfolio investments," Joe Vaillancourt, managing director for Waste Management's Organic Growth Group, said in a news release.

InEnTec specializes in plasma gasification technology, which involves superheating landfill waste using an electricity-conducting gas called plasma, which rearranges the waste’s molecular structure into a synthetic gas. The end product can be converted into transportation fuels such as diesel or ethanol, industrial products like hydrogen and methanol, or used as a natural gas substitute to fuel electric plants.

The S4 joint venture was formed to market the technology to large producers of industrial waste. In March 2010 the company announced plans to build a waste-to-energy plant Waste Management’s Columbia Ridge Landfill in Arlington in the Columbia River Gorge area.

Waste Management's Vaillancourt said the company remains committed to advancing the technology and looks forward to operating the recently completed Arlington demonstration plant, which is expected to process 25 tons of waste per day.

InEnTec is one of two Oregon companies to receive sizable investments from Waste Management.

In July, Tigard-based Agilyx Corp. received a $22 million venture capital round led by led by prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers that also included participation from Waste Management. Agilyx's technology takes waste plastics and turns it into a form of synthetic crude oil.