The Kenya Nut Company, near Nairobi, will be the first farm in the world to produce fertilizer, on site, that’s free of fossil fuels.
A small fertilizer plant, built by U.S. startup Talus Renewables, will use solar power to strip hydrogen from water. The liberated hydrogen will then bond with nitrogen in the air to form liquid ammonia. Every day, the plant will produce 1 ton of ammonia, which can be applied to crops as fertilizer.
Typically, ammonia is made by isolating hydrogen from natural gas, not water, in a process that unleashes large volumes of heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Globally, the climate impact of ammonia production rivals that of air travel.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
A fossil fuel-free ammonia plant at the Kenya Nut Company, near Nairobi. (Photo Credit: Talus Renewables)