BioNitrogen Corp., the Florida company that plans to build environmentally-friendly fertilizer plants using proprietary technology that converts biomass into urea, announced on April 2 that it has signed a supply agreement with United Suppliers Inc., Eldora, Iowa, for the offtake of urea fertilizer from BioNitrogen’s planned facilities in Pointe Coupee Parish, La.
BioNitrogen reported in March (Green Markets March 4, p. 13) that it plans to build five urea plants on approximately 250 acres next to the Pointe Coupee Parish Port near Lettsworth, LA. The new agreement will provide United Suppliers with approximately 124,200 st/y of urea per plant for 25 years.
“The agreement for these plants provides a framework for building plants in a strategic area to provide green domestic urea to our nitrogen fertilizer customers based on BioNitrogen’s sourcing of biomass raw material,” said Matt Carstens, vice president of crop nutrients for United Suppliers. “It will enhance our ability to obtain U.S. manufactured fertilizer from BioNitrogen.”
This is the latest in a series of agreements between BioNitrogen and United Suppliers, a wholesale organization owned by some 735 ag retailers in 20 states and three Canadian provinces. In August 2012, the two companies reported that United Suppliers had been given the right of first refusal of biomass-based urea produced by any future BioNitrogen plants in North America (Green Markets Aug. 20, 2012). Earlier in 2012, the companies signed a purchase contact whereby BioNitrogen agreed to provide United Suppliers with some 1.25 million st of urea over a 10-year period – or 125,000 st/y – from up to three BioNitrogen plants planned in western Texas (Green Markets March 19, 2012).
“We are pleased to further our relationship with United Suppliers,” said Bryan Cornegay Jr., BioNitrogen president and CFO. “This supply agreement is another important step toward providing green domestic urea fertilizer made from U.S. biomass to North American farmers.”
BioNitrogen has signed a letter of intent to buy the land for the Pointe Coupee plants, and has been granted preliminary approval by the Louisiana Community Development Authority to issue up to $1.25 billion in tax-exempt bonds to fund the land purchase and the development and construction of the facilities. Cornegay said the company hopes to start construction of the plants in 2014, with 2015 being the first full year of operations. The five plants would be built in succession, and each will have a staff of approximately 52 full-time employees when operational.
BioNitrogen’s first biomass urea plant is planned for Hardee County, Fla. The company recently received approval from the state of Florida to issue up to $175 million in tax-exempt bonds to build the facility (GM March 4, p. 13), and also signed a deal with CF Industries Holdings Inc. to remove trees from CF’s phosphate mining lands in Florida to supply the Hardee County plant.