N-OVATION, INC. — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: Until early in the 20th century, nitrate fertilizer was manufactured by the electric arc p

Description

Until early in the 20th century, nitrate fertilizer was manufactured by the electric arc process using water, air, and cheap hydroelectric power. Because this electric arc process was extremely inefficient, by the 1930s the process was replaced by the Haber-Bosch ammonia process which utilizes natural gas to manufacture nitrogen fertilizer in the form of ammonia. Not only does the Haber-Bosch process use the non-renewable resource of natural gas, the process also creates CO and CO2 as byproducts. The goal of this project is to use modern technology to improve the efficiency the process which creates nitrogen fertilizer from air, water, and electricity. The improved process should produce nitrogen fertilizer for less than $500/ton of nitrogen. Another objective is to scale the equipment to be economical for small farm plots of only a few acres. Having an on-farm method for making fertilizer would allow a 200 acre corn farm to eliminate nitrogen fertilizer purchases of $10,000 per year. With over 2 million farms and 900 million acres of land under cultivation, tens of billions of dollars of annual savings in nitrogen purchases could be realized if every farm in America had the capability to produce its own nitrogen fertilizer