Upstart urea company touts technology

Doral, Fla. — BioNitrogen Corp., which has a patent-pending technology to produce urea from biomass, last week unveiled a new website touting its technology and also named a new president. BioNitrogen says its small, modular plants – which can produce 15 st of urea per hour, or up to 124,200 st/y – can easily be located in high agricultural areas, where they can buy biomass (plant stalks, husks, household garbage, etc.) from farmers, and in turn sell them urea. The company says by-products created include fly ash, which can be sold to the cement industry, as well as electricity and water, which can be used in the production process. It also claims its process will recycle harmful greenhouse gases with virtually no negative impact on the environment and will qualify for carbon credits. The company also announced the appointment of Dr. Terry R. Collins, Ph.D., P.E., to the position of President and CEO, effective immediately, succeeding Jay Almedia, who will remain on the board of directors. The company says he has accumulated almost 20 years of professional experience in corporate engineering and plant operations management for major agricultural manufacturing companies, including Cargill, Anderson Clayton Foods, ACCO Feeds, Paymaster Oil Mill Co., and Archer Daniels Midland Co. He also held professorships over the past 13 years at four research universities, including the post of Associate Professor at the School of Industrial and Engineering Management, Oklahoma State University, as well as the Director of the Biodiesel Performance and Testing Laboratory. Collins earned his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management, with a specialty in Technology Transfer and Engineering Management, from Oklahoma State University. Earlier, he attended Texas Tech University, where he completed two B.S. degrees in the areas of Agricultural Engineering (with specialization in Manufacturing Systems), and Agricultural Processing and Material Handling. He then went on to obtain his M.S. in Industrial Engineering, also from Texas Tech University.