BayoTech Inc., Albuquerque, N.M., continues to advance its modular nitrogen fertilizer production technology, expecting to provide its major fertilizer company partner and investor with a hydrogen production unit next year. BayoTech reports that it will begin building its first hydrogen prototype system later this year for delivery to the partner in 2019.
“The company will use it for fertilizer production, providing a much cheaper way for them to make the hydrogen they need for their manufacturing process,” Justin Eisensach, BayoTech CEO, told The Albuquerque Journal. “They’ll test it first and then hopefully convert to commercial orders that we’ll fill under a supply agreement.”
BayoTech hopes to have its first full fertilizer plant by 2020. The three-step process will start with the hydrogen unit, followed by an anhydrous ammonia unit in 2019, and then a urea unit.
BayoTech says it now has $16 million in venture investment since 2016. In April, it announced that it had closed a $12.5 million Series B round of financing (GM April 13, p. 1).
BayoTech continues to keep the name of its fertilizer producer partner confidential, but says it is a significant player in the global fertilizer marketplace. The unnamed company participated in the Series B round of financing along with Series A investors Cottonwood Technology Fund and Sun Mountain Capital.
Founded in July 2015, BayoTech said it is the world’s first modular, scalable, and rapidly deployable platform for the production of hydrogen, ammonia, and urea for the agricultural and industrial markets.
The technology could conceivably revolutionize the nitrogen fertilizer industry. Rather than the traditional giant $2 billion+ nitrogen plants coming online in recent years, BayoTech’s $15 million unit can be shipped in three 40-foot shipping containers and produce 28 st/d of ammonia and 50 st/d of urea (GM Oct. 7, 2016). As a result, small ammonia and/or urea plants could be dotted around the globe and drastically cut transportation costs.
BayoTech licensed the technology from Sandia National Laboratories and enhanced it for broader applications. Sandia spent some $50 million to design the technology. BayoTech is partnering with Process Equipment & Service Co., Farmington, N.M., to construct the modular units.
Eisenach told the Journal that the company is getting attention from all over the world, and that in late September he will be in Switzerland and Germany discussing the technology and visiting some of the world’s largest hydrogen users.