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The ARS is Bion’s patented core technology. It captures the ammonia released when methane is produced from organic waste in an anaerobic digester (AD), then upgraded to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) that can be injected into a pipeline.
Anaerobic Digestion is used worldwide to produce biogas from organic waste streams of all kinds: manure; industrial sources, including slaughter/ packing, food and food processing; and municipal wastewater. Bion’s latest patent broadened the ARS coverage beyond animal waste, which it was developed for, to include industrial and municipal waste streams. Bion’s business plan now includes establishing a path to the industrial opportunity.
Ammonia is volatile, reactive, and mobile. Without control, most escapes to the environment – a loss of resource value and now recognized as a significant source of air and water pollution.
Once the ammonia is isolated in the ARS, it is stabilized with CO2 that is also in the waste stream, preventing both from being released into the environment. And it allows us to recover unique high-value nitrogen fertilizers that are immediately-available, organic, low-carbon, and transportable, so they can now be precision applied, when and where needed.
The ARS is also the foundation of Bion’s Gen3Tech platform, that can provide comprehensive environmental treatment and resource recovery for large-scale livestock production.
Bion’s Gen3Tech platform integrates the core ARS technology with a ‘tuned’ anaerobic digester to maximize recovery efficiencies for both RNG and fertilizer. The Gen3Tech platform will anchor a state-of-the-art livestock finishing facility that improves animal health and production efficiencies, while minimizing environmental impacts.
Improving efficiencies and economics in the beef industry starts with moving cattle from traditional outdoor feedlots into indoor barns. Barns protect the animals from harsh weather, improve production, and allow continuous waste collection and treatment. Dairy, poultry, and swine are largely produced indoors already, with continuous manure removal and collection in place.
The waste quickly enters the closed-loop resource recovery platform where it undergoes a variety of biological, thermal and mechanical processes. First is anaerobic digestion (AD), where methane (biogas) is produced. The AD discharge is then treated in the Ammonia Recovery System, that harvests the ammonia and carbon dioxide, as described above.
| Patent No. | Claims | Expiration | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
11858823 |
C: Expands claims beyond animal waste; specifically, to industrial and municipal waste
|
|
9/14/2035 |
|
11254581 |
CIP: Additional recovery methods that improve efficiencies and reduce costs
|
|
9/14/2035 |
|
10793458 |
C: Significantly stronger coverage of ammonia recovery technology
|
|
9/14/2035 |
|
10604432 |
CIP: Broader protections to cover technology platform improvements |
|
6/29/2037 |
|
10106447 |
Process to recover ammonium carbonate/ ammonium bicarbonate from wastewater
|
|
9/14/2035 |
|
8287734 |
Method for treating nitrogen in waste streams; original Gen 2 patent (Jere Northrop, et al)
|
|
3/20/2031 |