Valero Energy Corp. is a new investor in Enerkem Inc., the company said in a June 1 press release. The Canadian waste-to-biofuels and chemicals company announced it had raised $60 million in financing in its latest equity round.

Valero joins previous investors Waste Management, Rho Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures and Cycle Capital. Each of those companies also reinvested in this financing round, Marie-Hélène Labrie, government affairs and communications for Enerkem, told EPM.

“With Valero joining Waste Management as a strategic investor, Enerkem becomes one of the very few renewable products companies that is aligned with industry leaders from both upstream and downstream parts of the business,” said Vincent Chornet, president and chief executive officer of Enerkem. “This buy-in is yet another testament to the solid ongoing growth of our company, which is uniquely positioned to successfully meet the demand for clean transportation fuels and biochemicals.”

Waste Management is proud to reinvest in Enerkem, said Tim Cesarek, managing director of organic growth group at the garbage-collection company. “We are broadening our portfolio of conversion technologies in the waste-to-biofuels market, which is key to developing new, higher value-added end markets for materials,” he said.

The funding will be used to finance current and future projects, Enerkem said. The company’s 36 MMly municipal solid waste plant is under construction in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and should begin production in 2012, Labrie told EPM. A second 10 MMly plant, planned for Pontotoc, Miss., is expected to break ground sometime this year. “We haven’t decided on a date yet,” she said. Preconstruction work has already started at the plant site, which will also use MSW as a feedstock, and the company has established an office there. The USDA and U.S. DOE recently pledged $130 million in support for this project.

In related news, Valero also invested in a renewable diesel facility. Darling International Inc. announced May 31 that a subsidiary of Valero would provide funding internally through a previously announced joint venture. Construction is expected to begin in June with completion anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2012. The facility will produce 137 MMgy of renewable diesel on a site adjacent to Valero's St. Charles refinery near Norco, La.

Besides owning and operating 10 ethanol plants with a combined capacity of 1.1 billion gallons per year as Valero Renewable Fuels, Valero Energy is an international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels. It owns 14 petroleum refineries with a combined throughput capacity of about 2.6 million barrels per day. It also sells fuels at its 5,800 retail stores in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.