Iowa to Get First Biomass-to-Ammonia Plant

SynGest Inc. has secured a site in Menlo, Iowa, to build what it says is the world’s first biomass-to-ammonia plant, to help supply the U.S.’s 18 million ton per year ammonia market. The San Francisco-based company has developed gasification and syngas technology to deploy in its first plant. The technology will be used to annually turn 150,000 tons of corncobs into 50,000 tons of anhydrous ammonia, which is enough to fertilize 500,000 acres of land.

The process involves a pressurized oxygen-blown biomass gasifier operating in an expanding bed fluidized mode. The company’s patent-pending HarvestGas system gasifies biomass into a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, and is optimized to minimize the formation of methane. After the gas stream is cleaned, the carbon monoxide portion is shifted to maximize hydrogen. The hydrogen is purified and catalytically reacted with nitrogen to make ammonia. The plant includes an air separation system to provide oxygen for the gasifier and pure nitrogen for ammonia synthesis.

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