Repreve Renewables has opened a new processing center in Greensboro, North Carolina. The company’s primary crop is giant miscanthus, a high-yielding, low input and drought tolerant crop that has the ability to improve soil and water quality. While miscanthus can be used in a variety of products such as biofuels, the focus of the processing center, says Repreve, is to convert the biomass into a new and innovative poultry bedding product coined Thrivez.

According to the company, the renewable product provides the poultry market with a “purpose grown solution” for improving the poultry production growing environment. The U.S. poultry market, consists of 8.5 billion chickens and 253 million turkeys raised each year. North Carolina’s largest industry is agriculture and poultry is the largest segment.

Bill Pate, Wayne County commissioner who attended a ribbon cutting ceremony, noted, “We are certainly glad to have Repreve Renewables as a new industry in Wayne County. “Agriculture and agribusiness are at the heart of who we are as a county. Repreve Renewables’ growing and manufacturing processes help our farmers, our poultry end users and our Wayne County workers.

The processing center will house the company’s patented ACCU YIELD system, a technological suite that Repreve says enables miscanthus production commercially scalable and delivers greater yield potential through improved germination, viability and precision planting. The technology allows the company to produce thousands of acres of the feedstock during a planting season.

“The opening of the N.C. processing center solidifies Repreve Renewables’ commitment to investing in the future of biomass and the industries it serves,” said Travis Hedrick, Repreve CEO. “The processing center utilizes state-of-the-art equipment providing us with the flexibility and scale to further expand Repreve Renewables in new and innovative directions.”