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Jan 6, 2024

Photochemistry and a new catalyst could make fertilizer more sustainable

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, sustainability

Georgia Tech engineers are working to make fertilizer more sustainable—from production to productive reuse of the runoff after application—and a pair of new studies is offering promising avenues at both ends of the process.

In one paper, researchers have unraveled how , water, carbon, and light can interact with a catalyst to produce ammonia at and pressure, a much less energy-intensive approach than current practice. The second paper describes a stable catalyst able to convert waste back into nonpolluting nitrogen that could one day be used to make new fertilizer.

Significant work remains on both processes, but the senior author on the papers, Marta Hatzell, said they’re a step toward a more sustainable cycle that still meets the needs of a growing worldwide population.

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