The Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority has approved two agreements with Perdue AgriBusiness Inc. for the sale of steam from the authority's waste-to-energy operations to be used at Perdue's planned soybean processing facility in Conoy Township.

Perdue will use the steam in the operations and then return used processing water and steam condensate to the authority for treatment and recycling back into the waste-to-energy system, a news release said.

Salisbury, Md.-based Perdue AgriBusiness plans to spend about $60 million to build a plant next to the authority's waste-to-energy plant that would separate soybeans into meal, hulls and oil, the company previously said.

The plans for the facility, which would use hexane in the operations, have been under environmental review.