Officials with Syngest, Incorporated, say the Honeywell Corporation has been selected to help the California-based company design a proposed first-of-its-kind processing facility in southwest Iowa, that will produce ammonia from biomass. The plant will process as much as 400 tons of biomass each day to produce nitrogen fertilizer, which helps reduce fossil fuel emissions and will be sold to U.S. agricultural companies and farms.

Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) has agreed to provide front-end engineering (FEED) support and a wide range of technology that will comprise the plant’s fully integrated control system, process simulators and field instrumentation. Additionally, the proposed facility will use a pressure swing adsorption technology developed by Honeywell UOP to purify hydrogen used in the plant’s processes.

SynGest CEO Jack Oswald says “Honeywell’s unparalleled skills in renewable fuels and bioproducts, and special expertise in automated process design and controls will add enormous value to SynGest’s commercial-scale projects once implemented.”

SynGest’s Menlo facility will be the first carbon-negative bio-product project of its kind in the world, and will reduce greenhouse-gas-emissions by 150%. The project will eventually create 360 skilled constructions jobs and 40 fulltime employees. Purchasing/ transportation of the biomass and sales of ammonia, and support services will add $10 million of new income to nearby communities.