3 ms·

How much agricultural land can 1 ton of ammonia fertilize?

by 7373737373 3y ago

cannonpalms 3y ago
This will depend entirely on the requirements of the crop. You won't get a generic answer per unit area.
- hedora 3y ago
  It also depends on soil properties. However, 100-200 lbs of fertilizer per acre is somewhat reasonable, so it’s probably on the order of 10-100 acres per ton of nitrogen atoms. Source (this is an article about measuring available nitrogen, and their examples are in the 100-200 lbs per acre range): https://www.agry.purdue.edu/Ext/corn/news/timeless/AssessAvailableN.html https://www.agry.purdue.edu/Ext/corn/news/timeless/AssessAva...
Mistletoe 3y ago
> A 200-bushel corn crop requires about 200 to 250 pounds nitrogen per acre. So that’s about 240 lbs per acre of anhydrous ammonia. https://www.rs.uky.edu/soil/calculators/mult_fert.php https://www.rs.uky.edu/soil/calculators/mult_fert.php
delecti 3y ago
The other comment is probably right, that this varies widely, but getting a vague order of magnitude is still useful. From some amateur googling, it seems that an acre requires on the order of 100 lbs/year (50-300lbs, though the higher figures seem to also include things other than just nitrogen/ammonia). So 1 ton/day (assuming metric tonnage), would be in the range of 8000 acres/year, though with obviously large error bars.
- 7373737373 3y ago
  This being about 32km^2, combined with this: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/9582/how-many-people-can-you-feed-per-square-kilometer-of-farmland https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/9582/how-m... and ignoring the "round-robin" nature of the per-day restriction, it seems this might help to feed 50,000 people per such installation
KaiserPro 3y ago
depends on the soil, current crop and the previous crop, ground cover. For example, farmers grow beans/legumes because they are nitrogen fixers. This reduces the need for fertilisers later on. However does mean that you might bot be able to grow as profitable crop in that time. Soil health also comes into it. An allotment will be a shittone more productive per unit area than high grade arable land

How much agricultural land can 1 ton of ammonia fertilize?

cannonpalms 3y ago

This will depend entirely on the requirements of the crop. You won't get a generic answer per unit area.

hedora 3y ago
It also depends on soil properties. However, 100-200 lbs of fertilizer per acre is somewhat reasonable, so it’s probably on the order of 10-100 acres per ton of nitrogen atoms. Source (this is an article about measuring available nitrogen, and their examples are in the 100-200 lbs per acre range): https://www.agry.purdue.edu/Ext/corn/news/timeless/AssessAvailableN.html https://www.agry.purdue.edu/Ext/corn/news/timeless/AssessAva...

Mistletoe 3y ago

> A 200-bushel corn crop requires about 200 to 250 pounds nitrogen per acre. So that’s about 240 lbs per acre of anhydrous ammonia. https://www.rs.uky.edu/soil/calculators/mult_fert.php https://www.rs.uky.edu/soil/calculators/mult_fert.php

delecti 3y ago

The other comment is probably right, that this varies widely, but getting a vague order of magnitude is still useful. From some amateur googling, it seems that an acre requires on the order of 100 lbs/year (50-300lbs, though the higher figures seem to also include things other than just nitrogen/ammonia). So 1 ton/day (assuming metric tonnage), would be in the range of 8000 acres/year, though with obviously large error bars.

7373737373 3y ago
This being about 32km^2, combined with this: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/9582/how-many-people-can-you-feed-per-square-kilometer-of-farmland https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/9582/how-m... and ignoring the "round-robin" nature of the per-day restriction, it seems this might help to feed 50,000 people per such installation

KaiserPro 3y ago

depends on the soil, current crop and the previous crop, ground cover. For example, farmers grow beans/legumes because they are nitrogen fixers. This reduces the need for fertilisers later on. However does mean that you might bot be able to grow as profitable crop in that time. Soil health also comes into it. An allotment will be a shittone more productive per unit area than high grade arable land