I-Corps: On-farm production of nitrogen fertilizer from air, water, and renewable electricity

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是在农场从空气、水和可再生电力中开发氮肥。如今，价值780亿美元的全球化肥市场通过这一复杂而昂贵的供应链向全球40亿英亩的农田提供服务。一旦进入农场，化肥就会大量施用，其中一半以上会因气体排放和径流而流失，可能会破坏下游生态系统，并污染附近的供水系统。这项拟议技术的目的是提供一种生产环境可持续肥料的替代方法。拟议中的系统使用太阳能电池板作为环保能源，并且缓慢施肥而不是大量施肥，减轻了径流和气体排放的问题。I-Corps项目的基础是开发一种等离子体反应器，该反应器由可再生电力驱动，可将空气和水转化为水溶液中的硝酸盐。在过去的115年里，化肥一直使用Haber-Bosch工艺生产，现在每年产生近10亿吨的二氧化碳排放。拟议的技术设计是模块化的，降低了成本，并允许在偏远地区和发展中国家使用。该技术利用太阳能模块的能量和空气和水的输入间歇地在现场生产氮肥。这项技术与太阳能电池阵列和农场的灌溉系统紧密结合，为种植者提供按需肥料。初步研究表明，等离子体反应器技术是一种经济、环保的固氮技术。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of nitrogen fertilizer on-farm from air, water, and renewable electricity. The $78 B global fertilizer marketplace is served today by this process through a complicated and expensive supply chain to the world’s 4 billion acres of farmland. Once on the farm, the fertilizer is applied in bulk, and more than half of it is lost to gas emissions and runoff, potentially damaging downstream ecosystems and poisoning nearby water supplies. The aim of this proposed technology is to offer an alternative method to produce environmentally sustainable fertilizer. The proposed system uses solar panels as an environmentally friendly power source, and applying fertilizer slowly instead of in bulk mitigates the problems with runoff and gas emissions. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a plasma reactor powered by renewable electricity that converts air and water into nitrates in an aqueous solution. For the past 115 years, fertilizer has been produced using the Haber-Bosch process and now produces nearly one billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year. The design of the proposed technology is modular, decreasing the costs and allowing use in remote areas and developing nations. This proposed technology produces nitrogen fertilizer on-site intermittently using the power from the solar module and the inputs of air and water. This technology is tightly integrated with the solar array and the farm’s irrigation system to provide growers with on-demand fertilizer. Preliminary studies indicate that the proposed plasma reactor technology appears to be an economically and environmentally sustainable nitrogen fixing technology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.