Lately, I have been reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan.
Now I am going down the rabbit hole and trying to connect with people or startups working on low cost plasma technologies that may be used for the generation of ‘fixed’ or ‘reactive’ nitrogen, in order to replace the Haber-Bosch (HB) method.
The basic idea is to create nitric oxide (NO) in air plasma then allow the NO to react with O2 in the air to create NO2. Dissolving NO2 into water creates nitric and nitrous acid, or equivalently nitrate and nitrite ions. When bacteria degrade animal waste products such as manure and urine, much of the organic N content is converted to volatile ammonia (NH3). If this NH3 is lost to the environment, a series of environmentally damaging reactions will occur. However, if the NH3-containing waste is treated with the nitric acid solution, non-volatile ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) is formed. This greatly increases the N-fertilizer potency of the organic waste and minimizes the environmental problems associated with gaseous NH3 release.
Could you please put me in touch with persons or startups working on low cost plasma technologies? @gastonbilder
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When humankind acquired the power to fix nitrogen, the basis of soil fertility shifted from a total reliance on the energy of the sun to a new reliance on fossil fuel
“The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan