Decarbonisation and Decentralisation of Synthetic Nitrogen Fertiliser Production

Along with water and sunlight, nitrogen is essential to the growth of plants and life on the planet Earth. Until the early 20th century, farmers were relying on manure as a scarce commodity to enrich their crops. The Haber-Bosch process enabled the production of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. Agricultural productivity skyrocketed and food became more available and affordable. However, production, distribution and application of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers now account for 4.4% in total global CO2 equivalent emissions (2.6Gt CO2eq for 2021). Production heavily relies on fossil fuels leading to greenhouse gas emissions and it is centralized, while the consumption is dispersed globally. In fact, there are only about 200 fertiliser manufacturing facilities in the world. The fertilisers made in these facilities are distributed to five billion acres of agricultural land, so the need for transportation further increases emissions.

We must fundamentally change the way we have been fertilizing soil (for more than a hundred years). Debye proposes to replace this centralized carbon-intensive process with a decentralized electricity-based one. In this process, farmers would not rely on resource and capital-intensive fertiliser factories and the associated high-cost distribution networks, instead produce their own fertiliser on site by the use of air, water and electricity. It has the advantage of integration with renewable energy making the production completely sustainable. This project aims to show the feasibility of a plasma-based mobile fertiliser machine that produces synthetic nitrogen fertiliser in a completely sustainable and affordable way using only air, water and electricity.