4 ms·

Ironically, we’re getting our fertilizer from the same place we get most of our fuel: exhaustible caches in the ground. They may never run out, but they will on

Ironically, we’re getting our fertilizer from the same place we get most of our fuel: exhaustible caches in the ground. They may never run out, but they will only go up in price, raising the price of food.

defrost 3y ago
Ahhh, not exactly - we get our fertilizer from the air actually - it's the enormous energy draw required that causes us to use fossil fuels from the ground. That massive carbon footprint exists because although the Haber-Bosch process represents a huge technological advancement, it’s always been an energy-hungry one. The reaction, which runs at temperatures around 500 °C and at pressures up to about 20 MPa, sucks up about 1% of the world’s total energy production. https://cen.acs.org/environment/green-chemistry/Industrial-ammonia-production-emits-CO2/97/i24 https://cen.acs.org/environment/green-chemistry/Industrial-a... Here in my state we're looking hard at mass production (global scale numbers) of 'green' ammonia. https://fortescue.com/what-we-do/green-energy-research/green-ammonia https://fortescue.com/what-we-do/green-energy-research/green...
- rendang 3y ago
  We get our N that way, not our K and P
  - defrost 3y ago
    Potash salts (for Potassium (K)) are relatively adundant in the crust and if pressed can always be recovered from organics in the traditional manner. High-grade phosphate rock (for Phosphorus (P)) is the declining resource, or perhaps more accurately isn't matched by our ever increasing demand for it in fertilizers as our human population grows. For now at least we're coasting along on increased beneficiation of lower grade ore through washing, flotation and calcining. It's a fair point - I'm personally in the "let's see fewer humans overall camp", I'm not advocating genocide, just in favour of birth rates continuing to decline until we're back between (say) 4 to 6 billion. Unlimited growth in a petri dish has obvious issues, even if the dish is the surface of a relatively large sphere.

defrost 3y ago

Ahhh, not exactly - we get our fertilizer from the air actually - it's the enormous energy draw required that causes us to use fossil fuels from the ground. That massive carbon footprint exists because although the Haber-Bosch process represents a huge technological advancement, it’s always been an energy-hungry one. The reaction, which runs at temperatures around 500 °C and at pressures up to about 20 MPa, sucks up about 1% of the world’s total energy production. https://cen.acs.org/environment/green-chemistry/Industrial-ammonia-production-emits-CO2/97/i24 https://cen.acs.org/environment/green-chemistry/Industrial-a... Here in my state we're looking hard at mass production (global scale numbers) of 'green' ammonia. https://fortescue.com/what-we-do/green-energy-research/green-ammonia https://fortescue.com/what-we-do/green-energy-research/green...

rendang 3y ago
We get our N that way, not our K and P
- defrost 3y ago
  Potash salts (for Potassium (K)) are relatively adundant in the crust and if pressed can always be recovered from organics in the traditional manner. High-grade phosphate rock (for Phosphorus (P)) is the declining resource, or perhaps more accurately isn't matched by our ever increasing demand for it in fertilizers as our human population grows. For now at least we're coasting along on increased beneficiation of lower grade ore through washing, flotation and calcining. It's a fair point - I'm personally in the "let's see fewer humans overall camp", I'm not advocating genocide, just in favour of birth rates continuing to decline until we're back between (say) 4 to 6 billion. Unlimited growth in a petri dish has obvious issues, even if the dish is the surface of a relatively large sphere.