In October 2016 NHT’s 1000 tonne/annum capacity Pilot Production Facility in Dortmund, Germany entered fulltime operations, and has since then successfully produced more than 1000 tonnes of NOVIHUM. This critical milestone has proven that NOVIHUM can be produced at industrial scale efficiently and reliably to the highest quality standards. The Pilot also served as a platform for ongoing optimization of the production technology and the development of new product extensions, resulting in multiple new products based on the core NOVIHUM technology.
In tandem with the operations of the Pilot Production Facility, the sales and marketing team have built significant customer traction in Germany, Spain, and North America, with NOVIHUM in commercial use for crops ranging from potatoes to lettuce to wine grapes to lemons.
In addition, trials providing independent proof of NOVIHUM’s impacts for a range of high-value applications were completed in Europe and North America in cooperation with world-leading research institutes, including the Institute for Post-Mining Landscapes (FIB) in Germany, IFAPA and CDTA in Spain, and Texas A&M in the U.S. These trials provided compelling independent evidence that NOVIHUM offers short payback periods to its customers and uniquely combines the characteristics needed to improve soils at scales from front yard to farm.
Strategic market replication activities sought to expand NOVIHUM’s global market further, both in geography (e.g. early trials and market development in Australia) and applications (e.g. uses in vegetable transplants, or for commodity agricultural crops). These efforts built on the market traction generated by NOVIHUM’s early commercial success with early adopters to bring the technology at scale to mainstream markets around the world. Partnerships and cooperative trials were developed with key industry- and market leaders in both Europe and North America with potential to open country- and continent- scale markets to NOVIHUM in the coming years.
Building on these technical and market successes, NHT proved the interest of financial investors in supporting its future growth by closing a successful fundraising round in December 2017. High-level government stakeholders in Germany, the U.S. and Australia have also been intrigued by NOVIHUM’s ability to increase agricultural resilience, sequester CO2, and stimulate economic development in coal-dependent regions. NHT’s work through this Project has attracted international acclaim, when it won the 2016 European Enterprise Network “New Directions” Award and was selected as one of ten finalists for the 2018 Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) Prize.
Ultimately, all of these successful strands of activity delivered NHT to a point where it has the technical, commercial, and financial expertise, track record, and resources to confidently move ahead to build its first industrial scale production facility.
