Stanford sustainable fertilizer project

Team: Mark Cappelli, David Rogers, Benjamin Wang
Mid-range (Developing)

The Haber-Bosch (H-B) process is the main industrial method for producing ammonia-based fertilizers, which are essential for global food production. However, the H-B process is energy intensive. It accounts for 2% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and its cost influences oil prices. The high cost of fertilizer makes it difficult for smaller, underserved farms to compete with large corporations.

The goal was to advance a disruptive technology that enables farmers who cultivate 100 or fewer acres, particularly farmers from underserved communities, to greatly reduce conventional fertilizer use through the adoption of plasma-activated water. The plasma technology mimics natural processes seen in lightning storms, conditioning rainwater to have a cocktail of growth-enhancing reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. The technology uses only renewable electricity, water, and air to produce this plant growth enhancer. With low maintenance and capital costs, it greatly reduces small farms’ reliance on industrial fertilizers. 

The early prototypes produced enough of this nutrient for first tests at Stanford Golf, and with Stanford Building and Grounds Maintenance on several flower beds scattered around campus. With support from the Sustainability  Accelerator, the team has scaled the technology from a 1.5 kW system to a mass-producible, durability-tested 30 kW system. In addition to internal Stanford seed funding through the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy and Woods Institute for the Environment, as well as the Sustainability Accelerator, the research team has received funding from AutoDesk, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, and the National Science Foundation I-Corps program. The project team is establishing a Delaware C PBC (public benefit corporation) to commercialize and scale this solution.