Nitrogen

Shockingly Cool: This Startup Makes Fertilizer From Electricity

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 22:42:42 GMT

If you happen to pop into a Chipotle in California’s Central Valley, there’s an off chance you’ve consumed something downright futuristic: produce grown with fertilizers derived entirely from electricity, water, and air.

Nitricity, a climate-smart fertilizer startup founded by Stanford PhDs and postdocs, is proving its environmentally friendly concept with every scoop of lettuce or side of spicy red salsa. And there’s even bigger plans for 2024.

Its liquid fertilizer blends – sustainably produced via an ingenious process CTO and co-founder Dr. Joshua McEnaney likens to catching lighting in a bottle – are slated for trialing this spring with ag food giant, Olam (OFI). And Chipotle just dropped an investment into Nitricity at the end of 2023.

“We use a plasma-based process that splits nitrogen molecules from air, reacts the nitrogen with oxygen, and forms nitrate fertilizers in water,” he explains. “We capture that fixed nitrogen in an irrigable aqueous form, and we can make many kinds of nitrate-based fertilizers.”

For those thinking to themselves, ‘Wait, what did I just read?’ the same basic process occurs in nature during a lightning storm. These storms produce 1% of total nitrogen fertilizers globally, but they are just not efficient or predictable enough to rely on. Nitricity is taking that process into a controlled environment and ramping up the production.

“At the core (of our process) we make green nitric acid and can neutralize that with minerals to produce calcium nitrate or potassium nitrate fertilizers,” McEnaney says, noting Nitricity accomplishes this without requiring ammonia from fossil fuels.

Chipotle and Olam are on-board for 2024, and academics seem to be too. Studies commissioned by the California Air Resources Board and World Bank, among others, show that the nitrate fertilizers Nitricity makes can reduce nitrous oxide application emissions by 2-10x, depending on soil conditions and application rates. Third party studies have also shown similar results, according to McEnaney.

The next steps are clear. Setting up regional facilities for large-scale production and focusing on low-cost production so its blends can level up and be cost-competitive with conventional fertilizer.

“We’re looking at (producing) some fertilizers that are on the shelf but can now be sustainably made, and some that no one has ever seen yet, but it’s really about fitting into several different fertilizer categories that farmers are asking for,” McEnany says. “The biggest thing on our mind is scaling up.”

Nitricity recently relocated to a facility in Fremont, CA, for just that purpose. The concept that started with a focus on producing on-demand at the edge of the field in portable modular units has evolved into a Hub and Spoke distribution system.

“We’re not quite there yet,” McEnany allows, adding farmers in the American Southwest and West who use nitrate-based fertilizers for specialty crops are the initial product-market focus, for now. Eventually, the group does hope to have a product that will resonate with Midwest row crop growers (and the ag retail channel) that primarily use Ammonia, Urea, or Urea Ammonium Nitrate.

“For me, I was mostly attracted to the climate aspect, and then I just grew to love working with farmers,” McEnany says when asked what drew him to the project. “Our green nitrates have inherently lower field emissions than other fertilizers in many soil conditions – this could have an immense impact on climate change.”

You can learn more about Nitricity at its website.

Manure Application Following Silage

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 18:44:12 GMT

With silage harvest coming up quickly, manure application will soon follow. Because silage is often the first crop to come off the field, it allows for earlier manure application and thus an earlier cleanout of pens before winter. As that manure application plan develops, include best stewardship practices for optimum rates and preferred application methods in final decisions. But, wait, what do those things mean?

Agronomic Rates

Agronomic rates consider what future crops will need. They are generally based on one nutrient. That may mean some of the other nutrients will be applied in excess of crop needs and others will leave the crop deficient if not supplemented with other fertilizer. Your optimum rate may be an agronomic rate, but it may be somewhere in between the two most common:

Nitrogen-Based Rates

A nitrogen-based (n-based) rate considers how much nitrogen will be needed for the next season’s crop. For example, if a field is to be planted to corn in the spring, the n-based rate would utilize available manure nitrogen to meet all the needs of the corn to be grown next year. Because nitrogen is likely to be lost to leaching if over-applied, a n-based rate is the heaviest rate that can be applied to a field. In many cases, a n-based rate will far exceed nutrient needs for nutrients other than nitrogen.

Phosphorus-Based Rates

Occasionally someone may choose to use a phosphorus-based (p-based) rate. A p-based rate requires more land to utilize the same amount of manure as an n-based rate. This is especially true with beef manure and when distillers grains are fed because the ratio of phosphorus to nitrogen in the manure is much higher. Because phosphorus is not likely to be leached into the soil or groundwater, a p-based rate may account for multiple (4-5) years of phosphorus need. This is particularly common if the risk of erosion and runoff are low. For example, if you were applying to a field with a corn and soybean rotation, you might apply based on the P needs for the next 4 years of crops (2 years of corn and 2 years of soybean).

Choosing an Optimum Rate

In many cases, a person will choose a rate somewhere between n-based and p-based. That rate will often meet phosphorus needs for a couple of years, but is not sufficient to meet nitrogen needs. It allows for nitrogen to be applied later in the season, closer to when the crop needs it. This method capitalizes on the complementary benefits of manure and commercial fertilizer and minimizes loss of nitrogen from leaching. Additionally, it allows for manure to be applied on more acres, thus gaining the benefits of manure other than nutrient value on more fields.

Know How Much is Being Applied

The only way to know the actual application rate is to calibrate the manure spreader. Many people believe that’s a complicated process, but it doesn’t have to be. In many cases, calculations can be minimized and occasionally, with the proper tools, they can be completely eliminated. If you need help with your manure spreader calibration, contact myself or anyone on the manure team.

Incorporating Manure

When manure is applied on the surface of the soil, it remains exposed to the elements. This exposure can lead to nutrient losses from the manure. Nitrogen in the form of ammonia can be lost to the atmosphere, and phosphorus can be lost in runoff. To manage these two losses, a farmer may choose to incorporate the manure, essentially tilling it in. The sooner the farmer incorporates manure, the less the risk of loss. After 7 days though, especially if the weather is warm, ammonia nitrogen is already gone so there’s no nitrogen benefit for incorporation.

Before anyone decides whether to incorporate manure or not, they need to weigh the pros and cons of that incorporation. And the weight of these pros and cons are different for each farm or application.

Reasons why someone might choose to incorporate:

They are using manure with a large proportion of manure N in the form of ammonium N (risk of loss is high).
There’s a rainfall event predicted the next day that would likely cause runoff (higher risk of loss of P).
They’re also seeding a cover crop and are preparing the seed bed prior to planting or after broadcasting that seed.

Reasons why someone might choose to NOT incorporate:

They are using manure with already low ammonium N content (loss would be minimal).
They’re applying to relatively flat land where risk of runoff is low (loss of P would be minimal).
They’re applying when there is little to no risk of rain for several days (loss from P from runoff is minimal).
The field where they’re applying has few or no neighbors nearby to be bothered by the odor.
They have no equipment or not enough time/labor to get it done in a timely fashion.
They have steep hills and they’re not allowed to till the land without immediately following with a cover crop (high risk of erosion).

So, as you are applying manure or are watching manure applications occuring this late summer and early fall, remember that manure is not just a waste product to be disposed of. It’s packed with nutrients crops need, making it an investment for that field. The person doing the application most likely has a carefully orchestrated plan and they’ve probably thought about all of the risks and benefits of that manure application for that particular field.

How Do Clovers Add Nitrogen to Pastures?

Thu, 01 Feb 2018 01:12:00 GMT

One of the most important practices that any forage producer can incorporate into their program is adding legumes to grass pastures and hayfields. Even though there are several benefits to planting clovers, the main one most people think of is the nitrogen that is added by the legume. There have been many research projects over the years showing that a tall fescue/clover mixture can produce the same yield as tall fescue fertilized with 60 pounds of nitrogen per acre. A lot of times we make the statement “Clovers make nitrogen.” But technically that is not correct. So how do legumes decrease nitrogen fertlizer needs?

The first thing to recognize is there is a huge amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere. The air you breathe is actually mostly nitrogen – 78 percent nitrogen to be more specific. Legumes form a symbiotic relationship with a type of bacteria in the Rhizobium genus. These bacteria form nodules on the roots. The bacteria in these nodules take nitrogen from the atmosphere and put it into a form that the legume can use to make protein and grow. This process is known as nitrogen fixation.

How does the nitrogen get over into the grass? The legume is able to use this nitrogen to grow, but the grass surrounding the clover plant does not have access to that nitrogen. The grass can get that nitrogen through an indirect process. As the legume grows, producing new leaves and roots, there is the constant death and replacement of roots, root hairs, and leaves. As these plant parts break down in the soil, the nitrogen in these parts is released into the soil, then becoming available to the grass for uptake and use in growth. The nitrogen transfer is due to legume plants dying and the nitrogen being recycled.

Why is this important? I can think of a couple of reasons. First, it makes an excellent topic of conversation at any New Year’s parties. Everybody appreciates a good forage fact. But a second reason understanding this is important is because it helps in some management decisions. For instance, often we hesitate to use herbicides because we don’t want to kill our clovers. But if we recognize that the death of clover plant parts is what provides the nitrogen the grass needs, then we can incorporate herbicides spray into our program without hurting the nitrogen transfer.

How is this possible? Think about spraying in December or early January to kill weeds. It may kill some or all of your clovers, depending on the herbicide and the rate used. Killing these clovers will result in nitrogen being available to the grass in the spring. If we have used 2,4-D, we can come back in 3-4 weeks and replant clovers, resulting in very little damage to the future nitrogen transfer cycle in our pasture or hayfield.

Clover planting recommendations - The last two weeks of February is your clover planting target window. You should plant two lb white clover and four lb red clover per acre. Mix these seed and broadcast across a pasture or hayfield that has less than a 3-inch stubble. Freezing and thawing that will occur over the next month will help soil to seed contact.

What if you sprayed a herbicide? If you sprayed 2,4-D to kill weeds, you need to make sure to wait 3-4 weeks before planting clovers. If you sprayed Grazon Next or Chaparral any time after June of last year, you will have to wait until fall or next winter to plant clovers. One of the chemicals in these herbicides has some residual activity and will prevent new clover seedlings from developing.

Clovers are a key component of any good forage program. Be sure to utilize their ability to capture an atmospheric resource and put it into the soil.