Bion Environmental Technologies Inc., an advanced livestock waste treatment technology and premium sustainable beef company, reports it has completed initial system startup at its Fair Oaks demonstration facility and is very encouraged by early operational results. Bion has already been able to operate the system at "steady state" for planned short run-times, producing purified, concentrated ammonium bicarbonate base liquid distillate from manure digestate.
Bion anticipates it will operate the integrated Ammonia Recovery System (ARS) for the next 3–4 weeks during the current operational phase — processing manure digestate. Steady state operational optimization will continue for at least an additional 8 weeks to produce repeatable operating data that supports or surpasses the existing economic models. Bion will use the optimized operating data to complete the final design of the 15,000-head modules that will make up full-scale projects, that currently include Olson Feeders, Dakota Valley Growers and Ribbonwire Ranch.
The Fair Oaks project intends to demonstrate the effectiveness of Bion's patented Ammonia Recovery System, the heart of Bion's Gen3Tech platform, at commercial scale. Today, up to 80% of the nitrogen in manure waste — most of its fertilizer value — is lost via ammonia emissions. Bion's ARS captures and stabilizes that ammonia, using the carbon dioxide also in the waste stream, to produce liquid organic- and low-carbon water-soluble nitrogen fertilizers that can be precision-applied when and where needed. The ARS upcycles the ammonia nitrogen that would have been lost, creating a new revenue source while preventing its release to the environment, where it currently contributes to nutrient runoff, harmful algae blooms and coastal dead zones, groundwater contamination, and the formation of PM2.5, small inhalable particulate matter that represents a significant human health risk.
To supplement its press releases, Bion will also post periodic updates regarding Fair Oaks progress on its website and its social media channels, including Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook.
