Slashing CO2Fertilizer out of thin air.
Big Picture
Without the agricultural gains of synthetic fertilizer, it is estimated the world population would only be half as large as it is today. Yet, our reliance on synthetic fertilizer using the 100-year old Haber-Bosch process has major downsides: the production, transportation, and over-application of fertilizer generate 7% of global GHG emissions, especially in runoff of N₂O, which has 265x the warming potential of CO₂.
How it Works
Nitricity sells ultra-low-cost, solar-powered plasma cells that produce fertilizer on-site and on-demand. Their technology fixes nitrogen from the air, then combines it with other nutrients to produce a range of products, such as nitric acid and calcium nitrate. This innovation integrates directly with a farm’s irrigation system, enabling a precise and measurable supply of fertilizer anywhere in the world.
Unfair Advantage
Nitricity upends the fertilizer industry’s massive, dirty, and expensive centralized model with distributed fertilizer production systems powered by solar energy. The result is greater granularity in the quantity, composition, and timing of fertilizer application. For farmers, this works out to higher yields and lower costs on a per-acre basis, all while reducing GHG emissions by an estimated 81%.
81
Percent of CO₂e
displaced per acre
NICO PINKOWSKI CEO & CO-FOUNDER
Nico holds a PhD in Energy Systems and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
JOSH McENANEY CTO & CO-FOUNDER
Josh holds a PhD in Chemistry from Penn State University and completed his postdoc at Stanford University.
JAY SCHWALBE VP OF TECHNOLOGY & CO-FOUNDER
Jay holds a PhD in chemical engineering from Stanford University.
Why Fertilizer Is Such A Big Climate Problem
Greentech Media
Fertilizer Prices Spike Again As Russia Cuts Natural Gas Supply
Forbes
Nicolas Pinkowski, Co-Founder of Nitricity
My Climate Journey Podcast