- FuelPositive is working on completing the validation of the first demonstration unit of its green ammonia production system in November 2022, following which it will deliver the system to a farm in Manitoba
- The placement in the Manitoba farm is part of a demonstration project intended to evaluate the operational interface between the system and the customer as well as provide insights on the ease of use of the system and ensure the system performs as expected over time
- Having completed a portion of the validation that yielded positive results, FuelPositive has begun accepting pre-sale applications from farmers
- Meanwhile, FuelPositive is making efforts to enter controlled environment agriculture
- The company has partnered with the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility at the University of Guelph and Lenore Newman, the Director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of Fraser Valley
Committed to sustainability, reversing climate change and ending global food insecurity, Ontario-based clean energy solutions provider
FuelPositive (TSX.V: NHHH) (OTCQB: NHHHF) has long been working on releasing its onsite, containerized green ammonia production system to the public. Having set an aggressive timeline for itself toward the end of last year, the company has been inspired partly by
Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) ’s successful approach to manufacturing and product development and by the Toyota Production System (“TPS”) (
https://ibn.fm/6a3d2). FuelPositive’s product development program has remained largely on course, with build-out and validation of the hydrogen separator and nitrogen extractor, which make up 60% of the system, having been completed ahead of schedule.
However, in acknowledging supply chain challenges that have delayed the build-out and validation of the patent-pending ammonia synthesis convertor that makes up the remaining 40%, FuelPositive now expects to finish validating the demonstration unit of the system in November 2022, a slight deferral from its earlier projection of late summer 2022. Even so, this delay comes amid positive news that the early validation of the hydrogen separator and nitrogen extractor yielded results that surpassed expectations, giving FuelPositive the confidence to begin accepting pre-sale applications from farmers at a price of CA$950,000. Pre-sales activities started Aug. 10, 2022 (
https://ibn.fm/PqRUj).
A few weeks since, the company is already seeing strong interest from farmers around the world and has termed the demand as encouraging. “The level of interest in pre-sales serves as a strong indicator of demand. We are seeing a high level of interest in our onsite model, as we expected, because of the stability it gives farmers over supply, timing and price,” said Derek Boudreau, the Strategic Advisor for Agricultural Implementation at FuelPositive.
FuelPositive intends to use the pre-sales metrics to determine the volume of demand, following which it will determine the size of its mass manufacturing facility set to be custom-built on a nine-acre site in Waterloo, Ontario. In addition, the data will help the company come up with its material, labor and order fulfillment plans as well as the production schedule.
In the interim, FuelPositive plans to first deliver the demonstration unit to a Manitoba farm this fall as part of a demonstration project that aims to investigate the operational interface between the system and the customer in what is expected to provide insights on the system’s ease of use and ensure the system performs as expected over time (
https://ibn.fm/YK1Ed). The unit will be deployed at an 11,000-acre family-operated crop farm in Manitoba operated by Tracy and Curtis Hiebert, FuelPositive’s demonstration project partners and first customers.
The choice of the Hieberts and the location is strategic. First, Manitoba is known for its extreme weather that sees it experience heavy spring floods, sweltering summers and frigid winters. The unit’s placement in this region, therefore, will enable FuelPositive to understand its performance in the face of such conditions. Secondly, the unit is expected to be powered by renewable electricity from the green Manitoba grid.
FuelPositive’s onsite, containerized green ammonia production system is designed to utilize renewable electricity to generate hydrogen from water via the hydrogen separator and nitrogen from the air through the nitrogen extractor, before combining the molecules in an ammonia synthesis convertor to produce green ammonia.
Elsewhere, last month, FuelPositive named Lenore Newman, the Director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of Fraser Valley, as its Global Food Security Advisor. In addition, the company announced entry into a partnership with the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility at the University of Guelph, a research facility focused on greenhouses and vertical farming (controlled environment agriculture). The two partnerships, FuelPositive CEO and Board Chair Ian Clifford said, are intended to help the company make inroads into the exciting and critical controlled environment agriculture (
https://ibn.fm/Enj06).
FuelPositive’s systems, a news release containing the announcement reads, “would be able to provide nitrogen fertilizer for the highly controlled environments that are required for indoor plant-based agriculture while eliminating the greenhouse emissions associated with traditionally produced grey nitrogen fertilizers. The green ammonia output of FuelPositive’s system could also be used for fossil fuel replacement, heating and cooling, dehumidification, and even for water purification.”
For more information, visit the company’s website at
www.FuelPositive.com.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to NHHHF are available in the company’s newsroom at
https://ibn.fm/NHHHF
