UPDATED: 11/05/2015 — see Change Log

OWNER: BioNitrogen (BioNitrogen Holdings Corp)
PROJECT: Greenfield urea plant[memberful does_not_have_subscription=”1314-ammonia-industry-annual-subscription,1311-ammonia-industry-monthly-subscription,3338-ammonia-industry-30-day-subscription”]

COST (reported): Not announced
JOB CREATION (reported): Not announced — see Job Openings [LINK]
START-UP DATE (reported): 2016 last announced

CAPACITY	USGS[1]	COMPANY[2]	PERMIT[3]	ADJUSTED[4]
Ammonia		[None given]	[Membership required]	[Membership required]
Units: stpd, stpy, mtpd, mtpy = short/metric tons per day/year. [1] United States Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Yearbook, Nitrogen gives capacity in metric tons per year, calculated as “engineering design capacity adjusted for 340 days per year of effective production capability,” rounded to three significant digits. Source: most recent year, Table 4: Domestic Producers of Ammonia, http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/nitrogen/. [2] Company does not specify ammonia capacity. [3] [Membership required]. Sources: linked below. [4] [Membership required]. See Methodology.

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SUMMARY STATUS: Financing Phase – in Bankruptcy Protection
Ribbon cutting ceremony in May 2014. Awaiting announcement of bond placement and date for start of construction. This site may yet be developed as BioNitrogen’s proof-of-concept, however, BioNitrogen entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2015.

COST: $300 million estimate
JOB CREATION: 52 permanent, 250 construction — see Job Openings [LINK]
START-UP DATE: None, 2016 last announced
LIKELIHOOD: Dead — see Methodology

CAPACITY	USGS[1]	COMPANY[2]	PERMIT[3]	ADJUSTED[4]
Ammonia				100,107 mtpy
Urea		520 stpd 179,000 stpy		172,184 mtpy
Units: stpd, stpy, mtpd, mtpy = short/metric tons per day/year. [1] United States Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Yearbook, Nitrogen gives capacity in metric tons per year, calculated as “engineering design capacity adjusted for 340 days per year of effective production capability,” rounded to three significant digits. Source: most recent year, Table 4: Domestic Producers of Ammonia, http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/nitrogen/. [2] Company presentations, company does not specify ammonia capacity. [3] No air permit applications. [4] Adjusted Capacity is in metric tons per year assuming operations for 365 days per year; urea capacity based on company presentations, daily capacity; ammonia capacity estimated as required feedstock for urea capacity. See Methodology.

FEEDSTOCK: Biomass (woody)
END PRODUCTS: Urea

RESEARCH NOTES:
[Update pending …] In May 2014, BioNitrogen held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its Hendry County plant, near Clewiston, which will now be the first of this clean-tech start-up’s biomass-to-urea plants. The company aims to build “5 or more facilities in the US and Canada in the next 3 – 5 years,” and 10 international plants in the long term.

Other BioNitrogen plants, in various stages of development, will be located in Hardee County, FL, Taylor County, FL, Pointe Coupee, LA, and Battle River, Alberta. At various times, some of these were also reported to be the “first” BioNitrogen plant.

The Hendry plant will be, in effect, BioNitrogen’s commercial demonstration; it seems likely that major construction on the other plants will wait until Hendry is operational or, at least, fully designed. Construction has not yet begun, but will take 18 months (in May 2014, reports said that construction would begin in July or August; in July, reports said it was “still months away”).

State and local agencies in both Florida and Louisiana have been approving tax-free municipal bond issues (and many other incentives) for the various plants under development; these bonds now total “in excess of $1.5B.” Stifel Nicolaus will be the underwriter and placement agent for bonds, which Deutsche Bank “will purchase.” In the case of the Hendry County plant, the bonds are being issued by Hendry County Industrial Development Authority.

BioNitrogen’s urea plants are modular in design, so they will all be more or less identical – the implication for future plants is that much of the engineering design work will be completed already. Both the biomass gasification and the ammonia-urea process are standard, commercially proven technologies; the innovation is in combining them. CCC Group will construct the plants, and AMEC will do the engineering.

Casale Group had been working closely with BioNitrogen in 2013 and 2014, providing ammonia and urea technology and developing EPC cost estimates. However, as a requirement of the bond purchasing agreement with Deutsche Bank, BioNitrogen’s technology will now be provided by Haldor Topsoe.

BioNitrogen projects that the annual financial performance of each plant will be “~$78mm revenue, ~$50mm gross profit.” The company reduced project risk by signing long-term agreements for both feedstock delivery and urea off-take.

In March 2014, BioResource Management (BRM) signed a biomass supply agreement, to “manage the logistics and delivery of woody waste biomass feedstock to BioNitrogen’s plants,” for a 25-year supply of “approximately 350,000 tons of biomass annually” to the Hendry plant. At the same time, BioNitrogen made a 25-year commitment that it would commission BRM to “provide biomass feasibility studies for future plants.”

In August 2012, BioNitrogen signed a framework off-take agreement with United Services, an association of local agricultural coops and retailers in the US and Canada, giving them the right of first refusal to purchase urea produced by “any future BioNitrogen plants in North America.” This framework laid the ground for “25 year off-take contracts,” with a “guaranteed price floor of $250/ton,” and a “10-year take or pay agreement.”

In October 2012, BioNitrogen acquired 4A Technologies LLC, which owned technology for a biomass-to-urea process; the patent was approved in September 2013. [/memberful]

View larger map with all ammonia plants.

ADDRESS: Weekley Brothers Industrial Park, 3013 Evercane Road, Hendry County, Florida 33440, United States
WEBSITE: http://www.bionitrogen.com/

REGULATORY SOURCES:

• USGS: Minerals Yearbook, Nitrogen [RECENT / ARCHIVE]
• US Securities and Exchange Commission filings: EDGAR Search Results, Bio Nitrogen Holdings Corp CIK#: 0001015979 [LINK]
• OTC Markets filings: BioNitrogen LLC [LINK]

NEWS SOURCES:

• 11/04/2015: Wall Street Journal: BioNitrogen Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection [LINK]
• 11/04/2015: BioNitrogen press release: BioNitrogen Holdings Corp. Files for Chapter 11 Protection [LINK]
• 09/02/2015: BioNitrogen press release: BioNitrogen Business Update [LINK]
• 05/12/2015: BioNitrogen press release: BioNitrogen Announces Agreement With Air Liquide for Plant Air and Gas Requirements [LINK]
• 10/22/2014: BioNitrogen press release: BioNitrogen Announces Operational Update for Florida Plants [LINK]
• 07/21/2014: News Press: Excitement building as BioNitrogen plant nears [LINK]
• 05/19/2014: BioNitrogen press release: BioNitrogen Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Held at Initial Plant Site in Hendry County, FL [LINK]
• 04/2014: BioNitrogen Investor Fact Sheet [PDF]
• 06/06/2014: Florida Newszap: BioNitrogen expected to boost economic activity in Clewiston and Hendry County [LINK]
• 03/03/2014: BioNitrogen press release: BioNitrogen Signs 25-Year Biomass Supply Agreements With BioResource Management for Florida Plant [LINK]
• 09/19/2013: BioNitrogen press release: BioNitrogen Corporation Granted U.S. Patent for Biomass-to-Urea Technology [LINK]
• 08/15/2013: BioNitrogen press release: BioNitrogen Holdings Corporation Signs Agreement With the Casale Group for Ammonia and Urea Plant Technology [LINK]
• 02/26/2013: BioNitrogen press release: BioNitrogen Signs Engagement Letter With Stifel Nicolaus to Raise $175 Million for Florida Plant [LINK]
• 08/17/2012: BioNitrogen press release: BioNitrogen Signs Framework Agreement With United Suppliers, Inc [LINK]
• 10/02/2012: BioNitrogen press release: BioNitrogen Acquires Patents for Urea Production [LINK]