Princeton chemists discover a key to greener food production

Arguably the most important (if least well known) industrial advancement of the 20th century, the Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis process essentially conquered food scarcity by creating the means to mass produce fertilizer — fertilizer then used to fortify food harvests around the world.

But the production of ammonia — the building block for ammonium nitrate fertilizer — generates a problematic byproduct down the line: carbon dioxide. Lots of it: more than two tons of carbon for every ton of fertilizer. It accounts for an estimated 1.4% of global carbon dioxide emissions. So, while the process countered mass starvation, it also began ratcheting up the planet’s burden of greenhouse gases.

One of the main goals before scientists today is de-coupling food production from carbon. In part, this means finding a way to produce fertilizer through carbon-free ammonia synthesis. Can it be done without Haber-Bosch? The lab’s proof-of-concept paper lays out a simple method that involves shining blue light on an iridium catalyst to enable the formation of weak bonds at or near thermodynamic potential — that is, with no massive outlays of energy — without a carbon byproduct.

Read more at Princeton University

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