Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc. announced it has broken ground on a small commercial-scale Gen3Tech facility that will be located near Fair Oaks, Indiana. Bion expects building construction to be completed by December 15, 2022, with waste processing equipment delivered by mid-January. Successful operation of the Gen3Tech platform at Fair Oaks will demonstrate its scalability and allow nitrogen recovery efficiencies to be optimized at scale.

Operating data from the Fair Oaks facility will be used to design Bion's first full-scale commercial project and will support certification requirements for various regulatory agencies, including the California Department of Food and Agriculture's (CDFA) organic program and USDA's Process Verified Program (PVP) to establish a USDA-certified sustainable brand. The facility will also produce ammonium bicarbonate fertilizer for both commercial testing by potential joint venture partners and university growth trials. Bion's patented Gen3Tech is the result of more than 30 years of technology development.

It was designed to mitigate environmental impacts, recover resources that are wasted or significantly underutilized, including renewable energy and high-value fertilizer products, and produce premium branded sustainable meat products. The system captures and stabilizes the highly volatile ammonia-nitrogen in the waste that contributes to acid rain, contaminates groundwater, and is a primary source of nutrient runoff that fuels harmful algae blooms and dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, and many other U.S. waters. Anaerobic digesters, which are increasingly being used to extract methane from dairy (and other organic) waste, increase the production of this problematic ammonia.

In dry climates like California, ammonia emissions from livestock facilities combine with tailpipe emissions to produce PM2.5, fine inhalable particulate matter that travels deep into the respiratory tract, reaching the lungs and entering the blood stream. Scientific studies have linked increases in daily PM2.5 exposure with increased respiratory and cardiovascular problems and deaths. Bion's patented third generation technology (Gen3Tech) was designed to largely mitigate the environmental impacts of large-scale livestock production and deliver a USDA-certified sustainable product to the consumer.

The platform simultaneously recovers high-value environmentally friendly fertilizer coproducts and renewable energy that increase revenues. Bion's Gen3Tech platform can create a pathway to economic and environmental sustainability with 'win-win' benefits for a premium sector of the $175 billion U.S. livestock industry and the consumer.