Firm plans corn-cob-to-ammonia plant in US

30 June 2009 17:29  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--The first corn-cob-to-ammonia plant in the US took a step forward on Tuesday as SynGest chose Iowa-based Weitz to provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the project, the company said on Tuesday.

SynGest plans to build a bioammonia plant near Menlo, Iowa, that would produce anhydrous ammonia from corn cobs.

The plant will process 130,000 tons/year (117,935 tonnes/year) of Iowa corn cobs to produce 50,000 tons of ammonia that SynGest said is enough to fertilizer 500,000 acres (202,500 ha) of corn.

Construction of the $71m (€50m) plant was to begin in the first quarter of 2010 with operations to be fully underway in the third quarter of 2011.

The SynGest bioammonia production process begins with corn cobs fed into a pressurised oxygen-blown gasifier, where the cobs are converted to hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

The hydrogen would then be reacted with nitrogen from the air to make ammonia, SynGest said.

($1 = €0.71)

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By: Frank Zaworski
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