14TSB_ATC_IR Renewable Fertiliser Production to Improve Agricultural Efficiencies & Avoid Environmental Harm
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Chemical & Biological Engineering
Abstract
Nitrogenous fertilisers are used in agriculture to provide essential nutrients for crop growth. To maximise yield they normally contain ammonia or urea, (made from ammonia & CO2). Ammonia made from natural gas is responsible for 5% of global natural gas consumption (2% of world energy). Recent work by ITM Power has shown it is feasible to produce ammonia using renewable energy, where hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water and nitrogen captured from air. The project will design and build an integrated pilot scale system for ammonia production and urea synthesis. The unit will then be demonstrated on a UK farm. By producing fertiliser at a smaller scale, near to the point of use, it will be possible to decentralise fertiliser production, negating energy use to dry product for transport, reduce GHG emissions associated with fertiliser production and transport, improve UK food security and provide export revenues from fertiliser produced and system sales.
This proposal relates to primary crop production and the need for intensification of agriculture while reducing the industry's adverse impacts on the environment. UK Agri-Tech strategy identifies the unsustainable rate of consumption of the world's natural resources as one of 2 primary failings of the global food system. This proposal addresses the need to reduce the environmental impact of the production of nitrogen fertilisers, which are crucial to achieving the necessary increase in productivity of agricultural land. Current production is a large-scale industrial process, involving the production of H2 from natural gas, which is catalytically reacted with N2 derived from the air to form anhydrous ammonia. The project will develop a technology for decentralised synthesis of ammonia based fertilisers (urea) using H2 generated by electrolysis of water using renewable electricity. The unit will be on a scale which enables fertiliser production close to the point of use, further reducing emissions related to transport. The project will demonstrate a route to decarbonise the production and transport of ammonia-based fertilisers. The Foresight 'Future of Food and Farming' report estimates agriculture contribute 12-14% of GHG emissions, including those associated with fertiliser production. Agricultural production uses 4% of global fossil-fuel energy (560 GW/17.7 EJ) of which 50% is required for nitrogen fixation in fertiliser production. The widespread deployment of the technology has potential to dramatically reduce the GHG emissions of fertiliser production. The Foresight report also identifies the strong influence of fossil fuel prices on food prices, an important part of which is the impact fuel prices have on the cost of fertiliser production. By decoupling urea synthesis from fossil fuel consumption, the technology has potential to insulate the UK agricultural industry from an important source of future production cost increases and price volatility. The distributed farm-scale of the process promises the potential for UK farmers to reduce their production costs and to establish new revenue streams from the supply of urea, both locally and with potential export markets. The technology can help to keep down the costs of UK produce and also safeguard employment in the agriculture sector. Deployment of the urea-production process close to sources of renewable electricity generation offers a number of potential benefits to generators, including reduced grid connection costs, potential for reduced grid curtailment costs and improved price certainty. These savings translate into further potential revenue streams for the fertiliser plant operator. Deployment of the plant could also increase the capacity of renewable generation that can be connected, leading to further indirect environmental benefits.The project is business-led involving UK SMEs in technology and engineering sectors, while also drawing on the strengths of the UK academic community.
This proposal relates to primary crop production and the need for intensification of agriculture while reducing the industry's adverse impacts on the environment. UK Agri-Tech strategy identifies the unsustainable rate of consumption of the world's natural resources as one of 2 primary failings of the global food system. This proposal addresses the need to reduce the environmental impact of the production of nitrogen fertilisers, which are crucial to achieving the necessary increase in productivity of agricultural land. Current production is a large-scale industrial process, involving the production of H2 from natural gas, which is catalytically reacted with N2 derived from the air to form anhydrous ammonia. The project will develop a technology for decentralised synthesis of ammonia based fertilisers (urea) using H2 generated by electrolysis of water using renewable electricity. The unit will be on a scale which enables fertiliser production close to the point of use, further reducing emissions related to transport. The project will demonstrate a route to decarbonise the production and transport of ammonia-based fertilisers. The Foresight 'Future of Food and Farming' report estimates agriculture contribute 12-14% of GHG emissions, including those associated with fertiliser production. Agricultural production uses 4% of global fossil-fuel energy (560 GW/17.7 EJ) of which 50% is required for nitrogen fixation in fertiliser production. The widespread deployment of the technology has potential to dramatically reduce the GHG emissions of fertiliser production. The Foresight report also identifies the strong influence of fossil fuel prices on food prices, an important part of which is the impact fuel prices have on the cost of fertiliser production. By decoupling urea synthesis from fossil fuel consumption, the technology has potential to insulate the UK agricultural industry from an important source of future production cost increases and price volatility. The distributed farm-scale of the process promises the potential for UK farmers to reduce their production costs and to establish new revenue streams from the supply of urea, both locally and with potential export markets. The technology can help to keep down the costs of UK produce and also safeguard employment in the agriculture sector. Deployment of the urea-production process close to sources of renewable electricity generation offers a number of potential benefits to generators, including reduced grid connection costs, potential for reduced grid curtailment costs and improved price certainty. These savings translate into further potential revenue streams for the fertiliser plant operator. Deployment of the plant could also increase the capacity of renewable generation that can be connected, leading to further indirect environmental benefits.The project is business-led involving UK SMEs in technology and engineering sectors, while also drawing on the strengths of the UK academic community.
Technical Summary
This project in primary crop production addresses the need for intensification of agriculture while reducing the industry's adverse impact on the environment. Reports have estimated that agriculture contributes 12-14% of greenhouse gas emissions, and that agricultural production uses 4% of global fossil-fuel energy (of which 50% is required for nitrogen fixation in fertiliser production). The UKs Agri-Tech strategy identifies the unsustainable rate of consumption of the world's natural resources as one of two primary failings of the global food system.
This project reduces the environmental impact of the production of nitrogen fertilisers, which are crucial to achieving the increase in productivity of agricultural land that we need.
Nitrogenous fertilisers are used widely in agriculture to provide essential nutrients for crop growth and to maximise crop yield they normally contain ammonia or urea. Ammonia made from natural gas uses 5% of the world's natural gas consumption (that's 2% of world energy). Recent work by ITM Power Limited has shown it is feasible to produce ammonia using renewable electricity, where hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water, and nitrogen is captured from air.
The project will design and build an integrated pilot scale ammonia production and urea synthesis system to make fertiliser, and demonstrate it at a UK farm. By producing fertiliser at appropriate scale using renewables at the point of use it will eliminate the use of energy to dry the product for transport, reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions associated with fertiliser production, reduce crop production cost volatility (hence improve UK food security) and provide export revenues from the fertiliser produced and production unit sales.
This is resource and energy efficient. It uses renewable energy, nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide as the feeds into the process and so reduces greenhouse gas impact.
This project reduces the environmental impact of the production of nitrogen fertilisers, which are crucial to achieving the increase in productivity of agricultural land that we need.
Nitrogenous fertilisers are used widely in agriculture to provide essential nutrients for crop growth and to maximise crop yield they normally contain ammonia or urea. Ammonia made from natural gas uses 5% of the world's natural gas consumption (that's 2% of world energy). Recent work by ITM Power Limited has shown it is feasible to produce ammonia using renewable electricity, where hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water, and nitrogen is captured from air.
The project will design and build an integrated pilot scale ammonia production and urea synthesis system to make fertiliser, and demonstrate it at a UK farm. By producing fertiliser at appropriate scale using renewables at the point of use it will eliminate the use of energy to dry the product for transport, reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions associated with fertiliser production, reduce crop production cost volatility (hence improve UK food security) and provide export revenues from the fertiliser produced and production unit sales.
This is resource and energy efficient. It uses renewable energy, nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide as the feeds into the process and so reduces greenhouse gas impact.
Planned Impact
Urea is an essential component in the food security supply chain. It has a huge market and it is predicted that this will increase as developing countries demand more assistance in sustainable crop production. The problem with urea synthesis is that it is both energy intensive and has a large carbon footprint. This is in part due to the energy requirements in a large portion of the process, but also because the hydrogen required for the first step in the process is derived from fossil fuels through methane reformation. This means that the synthesis of urea CAN become carbon neutral or even negative. It is important that we communicate this to academics, industry, policy makers and the public.
We have the considerable advantage of simple access, through the CO2Chem network, to a pre-existing communications hub which will enable contact with stakeholders ranging from the general public, through other research groups and industry to policy makers. Styring is an adviser to a number of government research bodies on carbon dioxide utilization, including the Danish Strategic Research Council, FOM in the Netherlands and the European Parliament. We will build on this firm foundation to set up further communications activities for this programme.
We have the considerable advantage of simple access, through the CO2Chem network, to a pre-existing communications hub which will enable contact with stakeholders ranging from the general public, through other research groups and industry to policy makers. Styring is an adviser to a number of government research bodies on carbon dioxide utilization, including the Danish Strategic Research Council, FOM in the Netherlands and the European Parliament. We will build on this firm foundation to set up further communications activities for this programme.
Publications
Armstrong K
(2015)
Assessing the Potential of Utilization and Storage Strategies for Post-Combustion CO2 Emissions Reduction
in Frontiers in Energy Research
Armstrong Katy
(2016)
Joint Action Plan for Smart Co2 Transformation in Europe: Co2 as a Resource
Castro-Osma JA
(2016)
Highlights from the Faraday Discussion on Carbon Dioxide Utilisation, Sheffield, UK, September 2015.
in Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
Climate-KIC
(2017)
CO2 Utilisation Today
Dowson GR
(2015)
Kinetic and economic analysis of reactive capture of dilute carbon dioxide with Grignard reagents.
in Faraday discussions
Driver J
(2019)
Blue Urea: Fertilizer With Reduced Environmental Impact
in Frontiers in Energy Research
Ghavam S
(2021)
Modeling and Simulation of a Novel Sustainable Ammonia Production Process From Food Waste and Brown Water
in Frontiers in Energy Research
Ghavam S
(2021)
A novel approach to ammonia synthesis from hydrogen sulfide
in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Ghavam S
(2021)
The life cycle environmental impacts of a novel sustainable ammonia production process from food waste and brown water
in Journal of Cleaner Production
Ghavam S
(2021)
Sustainable Ammonia Production Processes
in Frontiers in Energy Research
Description | That urea and ammonium nitrate can be produced with a lower carbon footprint than the conventional process and that it can be scaled down to point of need production. Point of need production gi fertiliser with improved nitrogen uptake by the plant. Interest is now starting to accelerate from companies looking to produce low-carbon fertilisers in a drive to Net Zero. |
Exploitation Route | Looking at applications in India. Possible commercial activities. As a consequence of post-award discussions, some of the kit produced was repurposed into a couple of projects on fuels production. Further industrial funf=ding has been secured. EU companies now showing interest. |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Agriculture Food and Drink Chemicals Creative Economy Energy Environment |
Description | To inform future applications for funding of devolved low carbon emissions projects. Discussions in India about including the work as part of a circular economic approach to sustainable agriculture. The technology that was developed has been expanded for use in other high temperature and pressure applications, including the synthesis of aviation fuels from CO2. This has led to industrial funding as we progress the technology towards commercial application. The future in this area is looking promising. Recently we have worked with an external company (AESSEAL) to build upon the high pressure technology developed as a part of this project. A new carbon dioxide refining unit has been built and is at the pre-commercial stage. A number of applications have been identified for its application and a UK patent application has been filed (Number 2201062.3) in collaboration with other UKRI funded projects. The reactor developed and built under this project has been redeveloped under the Flue2Chem Innovate UK project. The reactor has now been developed into a Fischer-Tropsch-type reactor to manufacture long-chain fatty alcohol precursors for surfav The fertilisers produced as a result of this study have been tested in controlled growing environments in the production of rye grass. We found that the ammonium nitrate (AN) and urea (U) fertilisers produced fresh at the point of use had marginally enhanced yields when compared to commercial off the shelf fertilisers, but that the quality of the product has significantly increased in terms of enhanced nitrogen uptake. A self-funded PhD student has been used to extend the project above and beyond the original outcomes and who overlapped with original project. This has built on the carbon dioxide capture together with low carbon hydrogen production. The technology is now being applied in the SUSTAIN project (EP/S018107/1) to produce fossil-free carbon-based transport fuels. The reactors developed under this project are now being used in the Innovate UK-funded 'Flue2Chem' project in order to reduce the capital expenditure and demonstrate sustainability in reactor design and development. |
First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Energy,Environment |
Impact Types | Societal Economic Policy & public services |
Description | Horizon Prize for CO2 Reuse |
Geographic Reach | Europe |
Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
Description | Royal Society MP Pairing Scheme |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
Description | Flue2Chem - Building a UK value chain in converting industrial waste gases into sustainable materials for consumer products. |
Amount | £5,359,053 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 10030637 |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2022 |
End | 11/2024 |
Description | HORIZON 2020 |
Amount | £500,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | European Commission |
Department | Horizon 2020 |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 07/2016 |
End | 08/2018 |
Description | Horizon 2020 |
Amount | € 4,100,000 (EUR) |
Organisation | European Commission H2020 |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 04/2019 |
End | 04/2023 |
Description | IIKE UK Centre for CO2 Utilisation |
Amount | £25,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2017 |
End | 09/2018 |
Description | INTERREG |
Amount | € 191,000 (EUR) |
Organisation | European Commission H2020 |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 06/2019 |
End | 12/2022 |
Description | SUSTAIN Manufacturing Hub |
Amount | £10,852,989 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/S018107/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2019 |
End | 03/2026 |
Description | TSB Agritech |
Amount | £2,100,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2014 |
End | 10/2017 |
Description | FERA |
Organisation | Fera Science Limited |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | PROCESS DESIGN |
Collaborator Contribution | FERTILISER NEEDS |
Impact | FERTILISER DESIGN |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | ITM-POWER |
Organisation | ITM Power |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | PROJECT LEAD |
Collaborator Contribution | H2 GENERATION |
Impact | BUILDING PILOT PLANT TOGETHER |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | Waitrose |
Organisation | Waitrose Limited |
Department | Waitrose Agronomy Group |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Building pilot plant on farm |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to working farm |
Impact | Further funding proposal |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | CO2CHem Summer School |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | First CO2Chem Summer School. Successful five day event held in Sheffeild. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Carbon X-PRIZE |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Second Round conference for XPRIZE contestants. Styring gave Plenary Lecture. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | ICCDU 2018 Rio de Janeiro |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Keynote Presentations |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | ICCDU 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Committee work and presentations including Closing Address |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Utilisation (ICCDU) 2016 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | UK hosted ICCDU for the first time. Organised by CO2Chem. Very successful event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://iccdu2016.org.uk |
Description | International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Utilisation 2018 Rio |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk at ICCDU 2018 in Rio de Janeiro |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Invited Keynote at FutureFeed 2018 Oslo |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Keynote at FutureFeed, University of Oslo |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Keynote at Andlinger Center, Princeton, USA |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Keynote and Panel discussion on CO2 Utilisation |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Keynote at ENCO 2019 India |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Keynote and Panel Chair at Energy and Environment: Challenges and Opportunities 2019, New Delhi India |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Keynote at RRB-14 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Keynote presentation at 14th International Conference on Renewable Resources and Biorefinaries, Ghent, Belgium |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Meeting with Natural Resource Canada |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Discussions with NRCan and British High Commission in Ottawa to discuss future collaborative plans. NSERC application was an immediate output. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Meeting with Natural Resource Canada |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Meeting with NRCan and British High Commission to scope a potential UK-Canada collaboration. Ongoing dialogue. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Mini-Symposium with Toronto XPRIZE Finalists |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Mini-Symposium on Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 to products. Sargent Group at University of Toronto, Canada |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | New Energy Forum |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Recommendations on CDU to the energy community |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Port of Antwerp CDU Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Developing a CDU economy in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Presentations at ICCDU 2017, Shanghai |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Oral presentations from CO2chem members at the International Conference of Carbon Dioxide Utilisation 2017 showcasing UK research in CCU. Increase in awareness of delegates particularly Chinese, in UK research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | RSC Process Group |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Keynote on Low Carbon Fertilisers |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Royal Society Consultation of CO2 Reuse |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Output will be a Royal Society document recommending policy on CDU |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Royal Society MP Pairing Scheme |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | One week secondment to Westminster to work in collaboration with Dr Emma Hennessey at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Toronto Solar Fuels Symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Two-day meeting including Provincial government Minister of State. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |