Burnham RNG acquired by Ares Management

Burnham RNG, a full-service developer and owner of organic waste management and anaerobic digestion (AD) biogas assets across the U.S., has been acquired by a fund managed by Ares Management's Infrastructure Opportunities strategy.

The strategic investment made by Ares, a leading infrastructure investor with approximately $15.1 billion in infrastructure equity and debt assets, will support Burnham in the further development and construction of its broader pipeline of renewable natural gas (RNG) assets located throughout the U.S.

The acquisition of Burnham follows Ares’ announcement of a strategic investment in Dynamic Renewables earlier this year.

Founded in 2021, Burnham is a fully integrated origination, development, financing and asset management platform that provides waste recovery solutions focused on the wastewater and agricultural waste industries. The company is the developer and owner of the Pasco Resource Recovery Center (PRRC) located in Pasco, Washington.

PRRC is designed to treat an average of 4.4 million gallons of industrial wastewater sourced from six local food processors per day via AD and supplementary nitrogen reduction systems. After completion, the facility is expected to produce treated water for irrigation, as well as approximately 900 million British thermal units (MMBtu) per day of renewable natural gas. The asset has a 30-year wastewater treatment agreement with the city of Pasco and will sell produced RNG to Cascade Energy via a 20-year offtake agreement.

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In addition to PRRC, Burnham has a development pipeline comprised of several waste-to-biogas projects across the U.S.

Burnham is led by its founder and CEO Chris Tynan, who has more than two decades of experience in financing and developing infrastructure projects.

“Burnham is excited to work with Ares in its next chapter of growth,” Tynan says. “We are proud of the team and the business we have built to date and look forward to deploying more successful biogas projects in the wastewater segment and beyond alongside an experienced infrastructure investor in Ares.”

“The investment in Burnham further reinforces our commitment to providing our investors access to one of the most dynamic sectors of climate infrastructure,” says Andy Pike, partner and co-head of Ares Infrastructure Opportunities. “We are focused on identifying companies that provide circular waste management solutions to critical industries, while at the same time producing a green fuel product in renewable natural gas. Burnham’s flagship asset in PRRC is a prime example of this, and we look forward to supporting the platform in developing its pipeline of projects and further delivering waste management solutions to the wastewater and agricultural end markets.”

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP served as legal counsel to Edge. Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal counsel to Ares.