<
https://www.futurity.org/fertilizer-carbon-emissions-sustainability-2851142/>
"Researchers have shown how nitrogen fertilizer could be produced more
sustainably.
This is necessary not only to protect the climate, but also to reduce
dependence on imported natural gas and to increase food security.
Intensive agriculture is possible only if the soil is fertilized with nitrogen,
phosphorus, and potassium. While phosphorus and potassium can be mined as
salts, nitrogen fertilizer has to be produced laboriously from nitrogen in the
air and from hydrogen. And, the production of hydrogen is extremely
energy-intensive, currently requiring large quantities of natural gas or—as in
China—coal.
Besides having a correspondingly large carbon footprint, nitrogen fertilizer
production is vulnerable to price shocks on the fossil fuels markets.
Paolo Gabrielli, senior scientist at the Laboratory of Reliability and Risk
Engineering at ETH Zurich, has collaborated with Lorenzo Rosa, principal
investigator at Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University, to
investigate various carbon-neutral production methods for nitrogen fertilizer."
Via Rixty Dixet.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
