Bion is a public company whose mission is to provide sustainable environmental and economic solutions to the food and livestock industry and investment returns to its shareholders. Bion’s proven technology provides comprehensive treatment of livestock waste that largely eliminates its environmental impacts, while simultaneously recovering valuable assets from the waste stream, including renewable energy, nutrients and clean water that have traditionally been wasted or underutilized.

Direct treatment of livestock waste can provide high-impact and cost-effective improvements to a number of our Nation’s air, water and public health challenges – many of which have been directly tied to large-scale livestock production. Many in the livestock industry have made it clear they are ready to be engaged – with proven technologies like Bion’s, agriculture is poised to deliver high-impact cost-effective solutions to some of our Nation’s most pressing environmental issues.

Advanced resource recovery represents a much-needed cleantech solution for the $200 billion meat, egg and dairy industry that will improve its bottom-line. The technology platform creates new revenue sources and opportunities for the producer. Nutrients are converted to high-value fertilizer coproducts. The platform was designed to produce organic fertilizer products that will command a significantly higher price over synthetics. Projects will produce pipeline-quality renewable natural gas that can be used as a transportation fuel, qualifying for significant renewable energy credits.

Environmental benefits, as well as energy- and resource-efficiency improvements, are verified to satisfy EPA requirements. These verified credits can be traded or sold. This same verification process supports a sustainable brand, certified by the USDA’s Process-Verified-Program (PVP), that can be communicated to the consumer. Bion has already achieved conditional approval, pending resubmission and final inspections, for USDA certification – the Agency’s PVP is the gold standard in food certifications. Both consumers and activist investors are increasingly demanding improved sustainability in the animal-protein industry.

History

In 1986, Jere Northrop, PhD-biophysics, demonstrated the ability to grow and control large populations of naturally-occurring bacteria that could be used to treat the waste from livestock production facilities using substantially less energy than traditional wastewater treatment methods. While there was no broad mandate at that time to reduce nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in our waterways, the impacts of excess nutrients were beginning to appear and Bion’s R&D efforts began.

Since the passage of the Clean Water Act, the understanding of the causes and effects of excess nutrients has improved. Since the Pew Oceans Commission report in 2003 that identified animal feedlots as a “major threat to our oceans”, more than 30 major studies have examined the impacts of nutrients on watersheds and their estuaries, both in the U.S. and globally. In 2010, US EPA established nutrient limits for the Chesapeake Bay that require substantial reductions from the six Bay states and DC. In 2013, US EPA began referring to excess nutrients as “the greatest water quality problem in the U.S.” It has only gotten worse, with several states now experiencing excess nitrate levels in groundwater (drinking water).