Developing alternative net-zero Nitrogen fertilisers with no losses to groundwater and lower cost of N nutrient reaching the crop

粮食生产依赖于在田间、温室和花园里种植的作物，所有种植者都使用某种形式的肥料或“植物性食物”。含氮肥料可以通过让空气通过一个大的、连续的电弧来制造（高温迫使空气中的氮与氧反应，这样氮就可以被用作肥料）——这需要大量的电力，至少目前是通过燃烧化石燃料来制造的。这些人造肥料，如硝酸铵和尿素（在英国最广泛使用）还有另一个问题，那就是它们是水溶性的，30%到50%可能会流失到地下水中。这是一种经济损失和污染风险。许多塑料含有氮，最初也是以同样的方式从空气中获取的。在原始使用寿命结束时对这些塑料进行升级回收可以重新利用氮而不会产生原始的能源消耗。初步调查表明，其中一种来源含有22%的氮，当它进入土壤时，会释放到作物中，而不会损失地下水。这是土壤真菌的有机生物释放。最初的实地试验表明，为了处理这些材料，必须先将其磨碎，然后才能制成颗粒，但颗粒一旦进入土壤就必须迅速分解。因此，第一步是研究将材料制成颗粒，并在应用于土壤的背景下这样做。由于许多其他原因，包括能源消耗和种植作物的天气窗口越来越窄（由于气候变化），这种应用方法将通过直接钻探。因此，总的计划是开发一种颗粒，它可以经受住处理，并通过一系列常见的直接钻孔，在播种深度以下的一条地带上施用一定量的颗粒，然后颗粒分解，释放出氮含量，以支持作物生长。这种增长将通过收割来监测。另外还有使用硝酸铵等传统矿物肥料的控制区。

Food production depends on crops grown in fields, glasshouses and gardens and all growers use some form of fertilisers or "plant foods". Fertilisers containing Nitrogen can be manufactured by passing air through a large, continuous electric arc (the high temperature forces the Nitrogen in the air to react with the Oxygen so that the Nitrogen can then be used as a fertiliser) - it takes enormous amounts of electricity which, currently at least, is made by burning fossilised fuels. There is another problem with these manufactured fertilisers such as ammonium nitrate and urea (the mostly widely used in the UK) and that is that they are water soluble and 30 to 50 % are likely to be lost to groundwater. That is a financial loss and a pollution risk.Many plastics contain Nitrogen, originally sourced from air the same way. Up-cycling these plastics at end-of-life of original use can re-use that Nitrogen without incurring the original energy consumption. Initial investigations have shown that one such source contains 22% Nitrogen and that it is, when incorporated into the soil, released to the crop without loss to groundwater. This is an organic, bio-release by the soil fungi.Initial field trials have shown that the material must be ground up and then could be pelleted in order to handle it but that the pellet must break down rapidly as soon as it gets into the soil. So, the first step is to investigate pelleting the material and to do so within the context of application to the soil . That application method, for many other reasons including energy use and the increasingly narrow weather windows to planting a crop (because of climate change), will be by direct drilling.The summary plan, then, is to develop a pellet that will stand handling and passage through a selection of common direct drills, to be applied in a measured quantity in a strip just below seed planting depth, and that the pellet breaks down so as to release the Nitrogen content to support crop growth. That growth will be monitored though to harvest . Alongside will be control plots using a conventional mineral fertiliser such as ammonium nitrate.