New Detergent Additive and Carbon Products Plant Planned in Arkansas

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). AgriTec Systems, Incorporated (Webster, Texas) plans to build a $3.2 million sodium silicate and activated carbon products plant located in Stuttgart, Arkansas. Producers Rice Mill (Stuttgart, Arkansas) has formed a joint venture with AgriTec, named AgritecSorbents, who will finance, engineer, construct and operate the new plant. Construction is slated to begin in January 2003 and should be completed the third quarter of 2003.

The Stuttgart plant will be the first manufacturing plant utilizing AgriTec's patented technology. The process uses the raw material rice hull ash (RHA), which is the waste product from rice mill cogeneration facilities, to produce liquid sodium silicate and activated carbon products. Sodium silicate is used in the production of soap, detergents, rubber and plastic products. Producers Rice Mill currently generates 12,000 tons a year of RHA and AgriSorbents' neighboring plant will use that RHA to produce 25,000 tons per year of liquid sodium silicate and 5,000 tons of activated carbon.

Several processes using biomass (agricultural waste) has been patented by AgriTec to include RHA for the production of silicates, activated carbon and associated products such as fine-celled foam, plant growth media and thermal insulation. The cost-effective technology of converting agricultural wastes into specialty chemicals has made this company invaluable in today's world of environmental scrutiny.