Fertilizer Blowing In The Wind

Fertilizer Blowing In The Wind ENERGY Wind Power 31-3-33 Everybody knows that nitrogen is in the air we breathe along with oxygen and other gasses. Mike Reese has an idea for using wind power to produce anhydrous ammonia. The University of Minnesota researcher is setting up a pilot project using a 1.65-megawatt wind-powered generator. He plans to be producing fertilizer by fall 2007. "It is essentially the same process that was used in the original development of synthetic fertilizer," says Reese. In fact, the University of Minnesota is collaborating with Norsk Hydro, the Norwegian company that developed that process in 1905. It used electricity to create a plasma arc to pull nitrogen from the air and to produce fertilizer. "We will use wind power to produce electricity to power an electrolyzer that separates hydrogen from oxygen in water," explains Reese. "Once the nitrogen is stripped from the air, it will be combined with the hydrogen in a reactor to produce anhydrous ammonia." One advantage to the new process is size. Anhydrous ammonia produced from natural gas requires a large production facility for economy of scale. Because the wind-powered process uses pure hydrogen, a much smaller facility is possible. The pilot plant will use a 400 kW electrolyzer and a reactor to produce about a ton of anhydrous ammonia per day. "A plant could be geared to local coop production," says Reese. "You would eliminate transportation and handling." The costs for anhydrous ammonia produced with the wind-powered process would be higher than that currently produced with natural gas. However, Reese points to increased demand for natural gas and the dramatic rise in price in recent years. "If capital costs and wind energy costs are fixed, the price for fertilizer produced with this process could be constant for 20-25 years," he says. "It would eliminate a lot of the risk in fertilizer volatility." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Mike Reese, West Central Research and Outreach Center, 46352 State Hwy 329, Morris, Minn. 56267 (ph 320 589-1711; reesem @ morris. umn.edu).

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