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Sustainable production of ammonia fertilizers from biomass
Author(s) -
Gençer Emre,
Burniske Gary R.,
Doering Otto C.,
Tyner Wallace E.,
Agrawal Rakesh,
Delgass W. Nicholas,
Ejeta Gebisa,
McCann Maureen C.,
Carpita Nicholas C.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
biofuels, bioproducts and biorefining
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.931
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1932-1031
pISSN - 1932-104X
DOI - 10.1002/bbb.2101
Subject(s) - fertilizer , biomass (ecology) , agriculture , environmental science , productivity , lignocellulosic biomass , production (economics) , bottleneck , agricultural productivity , natural resource economics , agronomy , business , waste management , economics , biofuel , engineering , ecology , biology , macroeconomics , operations management
Nitrogen is the most limiting plant nutrient. Inexpensive natural gas has substantially reduced costs of ammonia fertilizer for intensive agriculture in the developed world, but its excessive use negatively impacts downstream ecosystems. By contrast, the availability of ammonia fertilizer is a major economic bottleneck for agriculture in developing countries. A dedicated lignocellulosic biomass crop could supply sufficient substrate to generate optimal nitrogen fertilizer on less than 5% of a grower's food crop acreage. Reimagining ammonia generation using biomass could significantly enhance sustainable agricultural productivity in developing countries when combined with emerging catalytic technologies. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd