SynGest Inc., San Francisco, recently reported that it plans to make bio-ammonia from biomass in Iowa. The facility will process 450 st/d of field-dried stover (stalks, cobs, etc.) to yield 150 st/d of anhydrous ammonia plus 20 st/d of bio-char, a soil conditioning agent. Stover will be gathered from 75,000 acres on nearby farms, while the bio-ammonia and bio-char will serve to fertilize 500,000 acres under corn. SynGest said that depending upon local ammonia prices, the plant will generate annual revenues between $25 and $35 million. It expects the plant to be in operation in three years.
The company says a major Midwestern agribusiness has agreed to supply the stover and purchase/distribute the ammonia. SynGest told Green Markets it is not ready to reveal the name of this player, but will do so in a later announcement. The stover will most likely be cobs.
Syngest said it chose Iowa because it is the number one corn-producing region in North America. “But we were also influenced by two other factors,” said Jack Oswald, SynGest CEO. “Iowa offers a smart and productive workforce, and the state is very proactive in its support of innovative agricultural and renewable energy technologies.”
Stover will be fed into a pressurized oxygen-blown gasifier and converted into a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. After the gas stream is cleaned, the carbon monoxide will be “shifted” to maximize hydrogen. The hydrogen will be purified and catalytically reacted with nitrogen (from air) to make ammonia. The plant will include an air separation system to provide oxygen for the gasifier and pure nitrogen for ammonia synthesis. SynGest said the process has been carefully optimized to make use of all recoverable waste heat, thereby minimizing the need for external energy supplies. Two major patents are pending.
SynGest says with its negative carbon footprint, the Iowa plant will be the first better-than-100-percent “green” environmental project of its kind in the world. The plant will create jobs for 30 full-time direct employees. Handling, transportation of the stover and ammonia, and ancillary support services will generate the fulltime equivalent of 100 additional jobs.
SynGest’s front-end engineering team includes Unitel Technologies, Alion, Eltron, PSRI, and RTI. The contractor for detailed engineering, procurement, and construction will be selected soon.