Nitrogen independence crucial to sustainability

[phantom power]

As our community prepares for life after peak oil, our local food and farming systems are receiving lots of attention. Given our climate and soils, we could produce a diversity of crops to supply our food and fuel needs. But where do the nutrients to grow these crops come from, and is the supply sustainable? These are just two of the questions that must be addressed to ensure the long-term sustainability of agriculture in our region.

Nitrogen is the fertilizer nutrient used in the greatest quantity in our country, with 12.5 million tons consumed in 2008. In the past decade, the amount we import from abroad has dramatically increased from only 12 percent in 1999 to 52 percent in 2008.

Production of nitrogen fertilizer with the Haber-Bosch process uses natural gas as a feedstock and requires a large amount of energy, so the production has shifted to countries where natural gas is abundant, such as Trinidad and Tobago, Canada and Russia. Because nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing is so closely linked to the hydrocarbon economy, many of the issues related to the sustainability of our energy supply — such as greenhouse gas emissions, limited reserves and increasing costs — affect the sustainability of our nitrogen fertilizer supply, too.

Luckily, nature has already provided us with a simple biological solution to the nitrogen problem. Our atmosphere is made up of 78 percent nitrogen gas, and bacteria that live symbiotically in the roots of legume plants are able to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form that plants can utilize. This process is fueled with energy created by plants from sunlight, water and air instead of the fossil fuels used to manufacture synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.


Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2010/10/29/2303408/nitrogen-independence-crucial.html#ixzz13l8hF58A

[ishaneferguson]

1. J-T expansion

J-T expansion of compressed air is what "Praxair" uses to get liquid N2.

[kestrel91316]

2. Liquid N2 isn't a fertilizer.

[jpak]

3. You can make hydrogen from the electrolysis of water (solar & wind) and make ammonia

Then use atmospheric nitrogen to make ammonia....

Using Wind Power to Produce Anhydrous Ammonia

http://farmindustrynews.com/bioenergy/using-wind-power-produce-anhydrous-ammonia

UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS are harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity, which may contribute to moderate-priced anhydrous ammonia fertilizer for U.S. farmers.

A pilot project, five years in the making, is finally under way at the University of Minnesota, according to Mike Reese, the renewable energy director at the UM west-central research and outreach center. “The project entails using wind power to drive a water electrolysis system to produce hydrogen and an air separations unit to pull nitrogen from air,” Reese says. “The hydrogen and nitrogen are then combined in an advanced catalytic reactor, also developed at the university, to produce ammonia.” Ultimately, he adds, “we believe that producing anhydrous ammonia from electrical means will be cheaper than using natural gas to produce it.”

The wind-based technology could drastically reduce the dependence the U.S. has on fertilizer made from natural gas imported from China, India and Russia, which combined accounts for about 50% of the natural gas produced worldwide.

In the process, the U.S. may be better able to minimize the wild price swings in anhydrous ammonia fertilizer that farmers have experienced the past two years. In early February of this year, anhydrous ammonia fertilizer costs were running roughly $500/ton. But two years ago, the costs were about $1,300/ton.

<more>

Phosphorus if the ultimate limiting element for US agriculture.

Organic farming practices can minimize those losses - as would recovery of P from sewage systems.

yup

[NNadir]

4. Bull. Wind and solar have not at any point in their sorry history managed to produce

enough energy to meet Haber-Bosch energy requirements. The entire solar industry, after 50 years of delusional horseshit can't even produce enough energy to run the servers dedicated to saying how wonderful solar energy is.

Haber Bosch chemistry has never been powered by electrolysis except where the hydrogen is a by product of the chlorine industry. One would need to understand the laws of thermodynamics to get the point, but predictably the "solar and wind will save us" delusional types hate science because it is obviously over their tiny little heads.

A few years ago, we had some retards on this website telling us all about the bullshit wind to hydrogen plant on Utsira that powered just ten homes - at a huge financial loss.

The number of petajoule scale wind to hydrogen plants is still, after the wishful thinking horseshit, zero.

[jpak]

5. Those are real scientists and engineers - not internet sickos - and they can make NH3

using

W
I
N
D

yup!

The NJ motlen salt breeder is still a fraud

:rofl: