Bion Environmental Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS: BNET) has rectraced after the recent rumup over $2 per share. The Comapny incorporated in 1987 in the State of Colorado. Bion’s mission is to create extraordinary value for our shareholders and employees (all of whom own securities in the Company) while delivering premium, sustainable products to our customers (and other stakeholders) through ventures developing profitable, transparent, and sustainable solutions for livestock agriculture.
BNET patented and proprietary technology provides advanced waste treatment and resource recovery for large-scale livestock production facilities (also known as “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations” or “CAFOs”). can largely mitigate these environmental problems, while simultaneously improving operational/ resource efficiencies by recovering high-value co-products from the CAFOs’ waste stream. These waste stream ‘assets’ – including primarily nutrients and methane – have traditionally been wasted or underutilized and are the same ‘pollutants’ that today fuel harmful algae blooms, contaminate groundwater, and exacerbate climate change.
During the first half of 2022 Bion began marketing our sustainable beef opportunity to retailers, food service distributors and the meat industry in the U.S. In general, the response has been favorable. During July 2023, Bion announced a letter of intent (“Ribbonwire LOI”) to develop its first large-scale commercial project, a 15,000-head sustainable beef cattle feeding operation together with the Ribbonwire Ranch, in Dalhart, Texas (with a provision to expand to 60,000 head) (“Dalhart Project”). The Dalhart Project will be developed to produce blockchain-verified, sustainable beef (with reduced the stress on cattle caused by extreme weather and temperatures and resulting higher feed/weight gain efficiency) while remediating the environmental impacts associated usually associated with cattle CAFOs. Bion’s patented technology will treat the waste stream and recover/refine valuable coproducts that include clean water, renewable natural gas (RNG), photovoltaic solar electricity, organic fertilizer and potentially other products. We anticipate converting the Ribbonwire LOI into a definitive agreement with Ribbonwire Ranch and creating distribution agreements with key retailers and food service distributors during the current fiscal year.
Earlier this year BNET and Olson Farms/TD Angus announced a letter of intent to develop a 45,000-head sustainable beef cattle feeding operation near North Platte, Nebraska. The project will consist of three of Bion’s 15,000-head modules that will include barns with solar panels, manure collection and conditioning, biogas recovery and upgrading, ammonia capture and production of organic fertilizer products, and clean water recovery. All processes and performance will be third-party verified, USDA-certified, and recorded on blockchain, that will support a transparent and sustainable-branded premium product, with dramatic reductions in impacts to air, water, and soil.
Also on feburary 7 BNET added Salvatore Zizza to its BOD. As a Board member, Mr. Zizza brings decades of experience in institutional finance, commerce, and public company practices. In addition to serving as an independent Board Member, Mr. Zizza will help implement governance procedures that include establishing and chairing the Audit Committee (and other committees) that will be set up during the next 30-60 days so that Bion meets the requirements of a listing on a national exchange. Mr. Zizza is currently a Director of 19 funds in the Gabelli Asset Management and GAMCO Investors, Inc. fund families, including several that trade on the NYSE.
On February 13 BNET announced the first shipment of process units for the commercial scale demonstration and optimization project at Fair Oaks, Indiana, has been delivered on-site.
The structure that will house the system has been completed; facility services, including electrical, will be installed concurrently with the assembly of the process units. The first shipment included the evaporator, pre-heaters and associated thermal exchange units. Final inspections of the remaining units, including the distillation and absorption columns, diffusion tanks and defoaming units, are now being conducted at Buflovak/Hebeler Process Solutions, LLC, Bion’s process engineering and equipment fabrication vendor located in Buffalo, New York. They will be shipped to Fair Oaks within a week of final inspection verification, which is scheduled for February 15. No further delays associated with supply chain issues or fabrication are expected. Bion anticipates assembly will be completed in mid-April, followed by start-up and preliminary data soon after.
The demonstration and optimization system at Fair Oaks is at commercial scale, designed to treat and recover the ammonia from the waste load from approximately 1,500 cattle. Once optimized steady-state operations have been achieved, Bion will have the data needed to complete the final design of the systems needed to treat the waste from the 15,000-head module(s) that comprise a Bion project. That will allow Bion to move forward with project development, including financing and permitting, on multiple fronts.