These don't appear to be incompatible or mutually exclusive claims. Like Theranos, it seems there was actual research, development, and small scale production

These don't appear to be incompatible or mutually exclusive claims. Like Theranos, it seems there was actual research, development, and small scale production work going on at OpenAg. Also like Theranos, it seems that work was nowhere near producing the results that were claimed by leadership, leading to falsifying results for the sake of publicity and funding. This means it's totally possible that the unsuccessful research they were doing was outputting wastewater containing excessive nitrogen levels while also misleading the public, press, and investors with faked demos.