Minnesota plant will produce fertilizer from wind

WEDNESDAY Jun 09, 2010 03:28 ET
Minnesota plant will produce fertilizer from wind
By DIRK LAMMERS, Associated Press

The winds sweeping across the Northern Plains could soon help farmers fertilize their crops of corn, wheat and sorghum.

Minnesota researchers have designed a $3.75 million carbon-free system that uses wind power from a towering turbine to produce anhydrous ammonia, a common nitrogen-based fertilizer.

It's a perfect supply-and-demand match, as the region has no shortage of wind and U.S. farmers use millions of tons of fertilizer, said Michael Reese, director of the University of Minnesota Renewable Energy Center at Morris.

The test plant will produce fertilizer for use on university farm land. But those working on the project say a similar system in which fertilizer is produced and sold nearby could contribute to the local economy.

More:
http://www.salon.com/wires/techbiz/2010/06/09/D9G7K4C00_us_food_and_farm_wind_to_fertilizer/index.html

According to the article, this system synthesizes the ammonia from air and water (using electricity generated by the wind).

Apparently, ammonia can also be used as fuel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anhydrous_ammonia#As_a_fuel
It remains to be seen whether this can be one of the solutions to our problems - there may be some practicalities that stand in the way of this becoming widespread - but on the surface it seems to hold some promise.

Even if it's only used as a renewable fertilizer that by itself could be a big thing.

Add: We have a saltwater pool and we use a chlorine generator to make the chlorine for it so this article gives me the idea that I could build a small wind generator to power that cell with to save us even more money than just using the chlorine generator alone would. The reason I say that is because I'm handy with building things like this and I have all the parts necessary to build a small wind generator that I could use for this purpose.

Storing wind power generated is a problem. In this case they are "storing it" in the form of fertilizer. If they have a calm day they don't make fertilizer but they should be able to predict the number of windy days per year. Hopefully the process is automated enough that they don't need any full time workers. Calm days could be an expensive issue.

It doesn't sound like it will be profitable at current price for anhydrous ammonia (NH3) but the price is energy dependent so there maybe a future for it.

Burning in a normal IC engine could produce NOx, including both acid rain and GHGs. Oxidation in a fuel cell would yield only harmless N2 and water. Liquified NH3 is about as easy to transport as propane, and in effect, functions as the equivalent of liquid H2, but with less danger and expense (less refrigeration/insulation).

There has been much research over the years in trying to store H2 in metal hydrides. Storing it instead in "nitrogen hydride" (NH3) appears to be hard to beat on a stored H2/weight basis.

The idea of using NH3 as "virtual H2" has been waiting in the wings a long time. I actually expect an industry of NH3-fueled cars to be much easier to establish than H2-fueled cars. The source of the NH3 can be anything that produces electricity.

If this is thought of only as a way of making fertilizer, these people need to think bigger. This could be the BFD of all BFD's.

that this really may be a BFD.

You seem to have some knowledge of chemistry so tell me, am I reading the article correctly? Can they really manufacture ammonia from air, water, and electricity?

Thought of as a fuel (in a fuel cell or whatever), is ammonia produced this way economically competitive with current fuels?

I'm inclined to say "not in the current market". Fuel cells are a great technology but every implementation I've seen relies on platinum metals. NOT that I've searched, though.

Check out the Salon article, it actually discusses most of these points. A surprisingly thorough job for a non-technical journal. And yes, that's (1)H2O is electrolyzed to H2; (2)N2 is extracted from the air; (3)N2 and H2 combine to make NH3, using a century-old process. :)

I haven't tried converting the price into the price per energy unit yet -- that's the crucial part. As the price of oil and NG go up, eventually (key word) the renewable process will be cheaper.

Obviously gasoline tends to burn and it's a danger that we live with but NH3 not only burns (I figure) but is a vapor that can travel quickly. What will it do to your lungs?

I've got no problem starting with fertilizer.

I would envision it being transfered much the way propane is already, with pipes and fittings. No sloshing liquid NH3 around in open containers. BTW, farmers already handle NH3 for spraying crops. So it's not that big a step to wider use.

Inhaling anhydrous NH3 can cause severe damage to mucous membranes and lungs. Once it gets sufficiently diluted, it is a lot less hazardous. Urine, after all, contains a fair amount of NH3 (due to slow hydrolysis of urea).

Of course, I wouldn't trust just anyone to handle even propane. There will probably never be anything quite as simple to handle as liquid HC fuels.

:toast:

:thumbsup:

Great idea, problem is it is going to take a boat load of wind mills to make even a little bit.

Yes ammonia is made from air, at least that is where the nitrogen comes from. And yes hydrogen can be made from water, but at very low efficiencies, say 10%. The cheapest way to get hydrogen is to strip it from natural gas.

The real energy hog in the process is compressing the nitrogen and hydrogen up to 1200 pounds per square inch so the reactor can combine them into ammonia. It takes a lot of energy to do this wither it comes from wind mills or nuclear power.

Wind isn't the only possibility.

Those big compressors don’t care where their power comes from. But for solar you will need to store power or shut down at night or in nasty weather. Also, you will need more than one boat full of collectors to make any difference, very expensive.

That was the whole point of this thread.