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Fertilizer production is an ideal match for solar power because it's not time sensitive; it can happen when the sun is shining. Or put another way, producing en
by rwallace 10y ago
Fertilizer production is an ideal match for solar power because it's not time sensitive; it can happen when the sun is shining. Or put another way, producing energy-intensive stuff like fertilizer is one way to solve the problem of storing solar energy.
- analog31 10y agoFossil fuel is not just an energy source. The Haber process requires a chemical feedstock -- nitrogen gas and methane, as I understand it. I don't know if anybody has found a pathway for making ammonia from e.g., the hydrogen in water, that's even remotely efficient.
- pyridine 10y agoI found this tidbit interesting from the Haber process wiki page: "Nearly 80% of the nitrogen found in human tissues originated from the Haber-Bosch process" and yet only "3–5% of the world's natural gas production is consumed in the Haber process"
- Turing_Machine 10y agoGreat. Set up a solar-powered fertilizer plant and put the nasty petrochemical-based ones out of business. Talk is cheap. Results matter. Especially when you're talking about the food supply for billions of people.