Greentech Lead America:BioNitrogen Corporation, a cleantech company that
utilizes proprietary technology to build environmentally-friendly plants that
convert biomass into urea fertilizer, announced that it will purchase biomass
from a 40-acre parcel of land in Hardee County, Florida. The company also has
plans to construct a biomass-to-urea production facility on this land.
BioNitrogen will use this biomass, consisting tree
trimmings, agricultural waste and woodchips to produce urea fertilizer. The
land is being leased to BioNitrogen for a period of two years with an automatic
two-year renewal provision.
Florida is one of the largest producers of tree trimmings
as well as other sustainable biomass, a feedstock that is year-round and not
subject to severe declines in production due to the changes in weather.
The amount of biomass has
grown to the point where companies disposing of biomass are paying large
“tipping fees” to collection centers where the trimmings are
disposed. BioNitrogen intends to collect tipping fees for the disposal of the
waste.
The company believes that this is an ideal location to
build its first plant because Hardee County has both a large supply of
wood-based biomass and a large potential market for urea.
“The biomass, or plant feedstock, is a material cost
in our plant business model. In the planned operation being set up in
Hardee County we can source the biomass and generate revenues at the same time,
on a year-round basis,” said Carlos A. Contreras, president & CEO of
BioNitrogen.