Bion’s high-value organic fertilizers drive a new value proposition and business opportunity in biogas production
Executive Summary
Bion’s third-generation Ammonia Recovery System (ARS) is a breakthrough technology for biogas and Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) producers. The ARS captures the harmful ammonia and CO₂ generated during biogas production and converts them into advanced, high-value organic nitrogen fertilizers.
Biogas is produced by anaerobic digestion (AD) of manure and other organic waste at more than 2,500 locations in the U.S. and over 18,000 in Europe. AD also releases a lot of ammonia in its effluent (discharge). If uncontrolled, the ammonia evaporates or runs off to fuel small particulate air pollution; algae blooms that are increasingly toxic in our lakes, rivers, and coastal waters; and groundwater nitrate contamination. Bion’s ARS prevents that pollution and transforms this growing health threat into a premium organic nitrogen fertilizer that can be stored, transported, and used when and where needed.
Bion’s unique fertilizer is OMRI Listed (Organic Materials Review Institute), which is the gold standard for organic producers. AB10 belongs to an emerging class of soluble nitrogen fertilizers produced from organic waste. Their value is substantially greater than synthetic or ‘chemical’ nitrogen fertilizers. These pure nitrogen products will provide organic growers with an affordable, readily-available nitrogen that was not previously allowed for use in organic production. Growers will be able to increase yields, improve profitability, and lower organic’s carbon footprint.
Bion is now evaluating dozens of biogas projects of varying size, feedstock, and location to source its fertilizers, as well as several potential engineering and development partners. The priority is on existing facilities, such as smaller industrial food waste operations, that could be developed quickly and produce an initial fertilizer supply in 2026. To support continued growth into 2027 and beyond, the company is evaluating a broad range of larger projects, both industrial and animal waste, existing and new development.
High-value Organic Nitrogen Fertilizer
Bion’s Liquid AB10 is an OMRI Listed 10-0-0 nitrogen fertilizer that is 10 percent nitrogen by weight. It is stabilized with CO₂ to form ammonium bicarbonate/carbonate that is 100% water soluble, with no impurities [here]. Concentration and pH can be adjusted, based on specific crop and soil needs. Ammonium bicarbonate has a long history of use as a synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, before it was phased out by cheaper products like urea.
Bion is focused on the specialty crop markets with the highest margins: organic fruits & vegetables. Bion recently executed its first wholesale offtake commitments (non-binding until supply secured) with three large organic fertilizer distributors at $7/lb, which was expected and modeled [here and here]. Retail pricing for West Coast growers is confirmed at approximately $14/lb. Marketing outreach began recently; more offtakes are expected.
The U.S. agriculture market is estimated at 25 to 35 million pounds of organic nitrogen annually, growing at 1-2 million pounds per year. The U.S. represents less than 10 percent of global organic fruit & vegetable production. Bion will also target other agricultural uses for its fertilizer, including row crops (grains), cover crops, and indoor farming. Bion’s products have undergone testing and initial growth trials for organic specialty crops, greenhouse and aero/hydroponic production, field crops, and lawn and garden use.
Bion’s fertilizer products have several key advantages over the nitrogen sources available to organic growers today. Stabilized soluble products like Bion’s have not entered the market in a meaningful way, so demand for them is unserved. Bion’s patented process is one of only a few ways to produce a stabilized organic nitrogen fertilizer product from AD effluent and it has certain economic and operational advantages over the others.
Consumer retail (home/garden) and turf & landscape, including golf courses, schools, parks, and youth sports fields, are also targets. Growing concerns about sustainability, health, and safety are fueling the use of natural and organic products in these settings. Market size is clearly very large, but pricing has not been established so value is unknown.
It is difficult to accurately predict the timing of these evolving markets, but organic is the fastest growing part of U.S. agriculture. Bion believes that consumer concerns over health and food safety are not a passing fad. Unlocking better yields and profitability can increase the affordability of organic products, spurring wider adoption and faster growth.
Proven Technology
The ARS was developed to control and recover the ammonia from the waste from large-scale CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). However, it can provide standalone (bolt-on) ammonia control for any biogas facility and Bion’s patents were expanded in 2024 to include industrial and municipal biogas facilities.
Bion’s patented ARS captures and stabilizes up to 90 percent of the ammonia in the effluent from biogas production. It employs well-understood mechanical processes with decades of use across many industries: evaporation, condensation, distillation, and diffusion. The ARS isolates the ammonia, concentrates it, then diffuses it with CO2 to partially stabilize it and lower its pH. The CO2 also comes from the waste stream, keeping the fertilizer product organic, reducing its carbon footprint, and lowering its cost. This CO₂-stabilization process is patented and part of Bion’s Intellectual Property.
Bion recently published its Technology-Optimization Report, based on almost two years of operations at its small commercial-scale facility, near Fair Oaks, Indiana. Technology development, optimization, and the report were completed under guidance from Buflovak, LLC, a specialty engineering firm focused on thermal process equipment that Bion engaged over six years to develop the ARS. Optimization demonstrated that the system is stable, reliable, and scalable. The ARS is ready for the site-specific final design process of a full-scale commercial system. A summary of the report is available [here].
Projects
Bion’s search for projects began in May, once ARS optimization was complete. The RNG industry is in flux, along with many of the biogas projects that were already in the planning stages, due to uncertainty over national renewable energy policy and declining RNG prices. Optimization is a key stakeholder focus, for both existing facilities and projects already in the development pipeline. Ammonia control solutions are part of that focus, especially if they can improve economics. Bion is currently evaluating a wide range of project opportunities in both the industrial and agriculture sectors.
Bion’s fertilizer marketing plan is aggressive to match its potential first-mover advantage. To meet its goal to deliver fertilizer into the 2026 growing season, the company is focused on smaller supply opportunities in the industrial sector with shorter development timelines. To expand long-term supply, Bion is evaluating larger projects, including several CAFO opportunities in the Midwest and California.
Industrial food waste, food/bev processing, slaughter, and other AD facilities face discharge limits under the Clean Water Act. Treating their effluent, including ammonia control, is an expected cost. Since they probably remove ammonia already, a recovery system to upcycle it into Bion’s fertilizer can be installed more easily, quickly, and cheaply.
Current treatment costs start around $1.00/pound of ammonia-nitrogen (AN) removed. Some facilities spend more to recover and stabilize AN, then sell the nitrogen into the non-organic fertilizer markets at $0.70/lb to partially offset their costs.
Bion’s recovery costs are moderately higher, but the organic fertilizer it produces will sell for 10 to 20 times the price for non-organic. For example, Bion has begun executing wholesale offtake commitments at $7.00 per pound of nitrogen, FOB at a Midwest production facility, with solid gross margins. A fourth-gen ARS ‘Lite’ is being developed for ‘cleaner’ industrial (and manure) waste streams that will further reduce costs.
CAFOs are the largest source of ammonia in the U.S. and represent the largest source of ammonia feedstock for Bion’s fertilizers. CAFOs will likely require more infrastructure, capital, and time to develop than industrial operations. However, CAFOs often have high volumes and ammonia concentrations that favor Bion’s fertilizer economics. More than 500 CAFOs in the U.S. have added biogas production, with more in development.
As agriculture operations, CAFOs can spread their manure (and its ammonia-nitrogen) directly on farmland as fertilizer. AD/biogas effluent from CAFOs can also be spread on farmland, even though the process increases the reactive ammonia severalfold. This also highly mobile ammonia escapes when the effluent is land-applied, pollutes the surrounding area, then spreads to downstream and downwind ecosystems. With little regulation in place today, CAFOs don’t have an ‘ammonia problem’. Bion’s high value organic fertilizers can catalyze environmental stewardship (and projects to drive it) by creating a new value proposition that rewards ammonia control.
However, in California’s Central Valley, the ability to spread CAFO/biogas effluent on cropland is already changing. Ammonia’s impact on air and water quality has grown along with the state’s dairy industry, that has $30 billion in annual economic impact. The problems have been compounded by persistent drought and fresh water for agriculture is now being limited under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Notably, Bion’s ARS can capture 90 percent of that ammonia and also recovers clean water that can be directed to agricultural re-use or groundwater recharge. There is a growing consensus that programs will be adopted in California that will support the valorization of meaningful clean water solutions.
Livestock production is a ‘dirty’ business, as is biogas/RNG. CAFOs are already the largest source of ammonia in the US and producing biogas makes it worse. Moreover, CAFOs and their pollution are often concentrated in certain watersheds and regions, such as hogs in the Great Lakes Basin, poultry in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and beef and hogs in the Mississippi River Basin. It is no coincidence that these watersheds suffer some of the greatest algae bloom and groundwater problems in America.
Meaningful ammonia reductions can have an outsized impact in these regions, resulting in meaningful improvements in air and water quality and overall health. Bion believes ammonia control will be increasingly incentivized and/or mandated over the coming years. Bion’s third generation technology was developed just for these large-scale solutions and to exploit this inevitable opportunity.
In Transition
Bion has faced significant management and financial challenges over the last two years, beginning with the death of its long-time CEO at a critical time when the company was entering commercialization. Key staff, coupled with a new Board of Directors, have refocused the company on its evolving opportunity to produce high-margin fertilizers, while providing ammonia control solutions to the biogas industry. Despite its challenges, especially financial, Bion has made significant progress in the last year:
- Completed technology R&D, optimization, and demonstration
- Begun to assemble a core commercialization team
- Demonstrated strong fertilizer demand at modeled pricing
- Identified several potential engineer/developer partners
- Identified a large pool of initial supply projects
Going Forward
Bion is project-ready and has an aggressive plan. The company is among a select few with an opportunity to be a first-mover in two large and developing markets: ammonia control solutions and next-gen organic fertilizers. Bion is in discussions with some of the largest stakeholders in the biogas and organic fertilizer sectors and is confident it will have several projects and strategic partners to choose from.
The next steps are to select projects and partners, round out the core Bion team, fuel the company with capital, and execute. The company’s goals include at least 12 bolt-on projects by 2030, producing more than 15 million pounds of nitrogen annually. Long-term, Bion will continue its mission to provide state-of-the-art solutions to clean up and maximize CAFO efficiencies and benefits.
Preventing Pollution | Recovering Resources
This material includes forward-looking statements based on management’s current reasonable business expectations, as of August 15, 2025. In this document, the words ‘can’, ‘will’, ‘expect’, ‘believe’, ‘should’ and similar expressions identify certain forward-looking statements. These statements are made in reliance on the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. There are numerous risks and uncertainties that could result in actual results differing materially from expected outcomes. Potential investors are urged to carefully review the company’s SEC Forms 10-K (annual) and 10-Q (quarterly) filings, including Risk Factors, at www.sec.gov.