4 ms·

Researchers have developed a method to produce ammonia with air and water

5 points by Shivetya 12y ago

th3iedkid 12y ago
Combined with the fact that ammonia can be used as a fuel, they are making fuel out of air & water in that case.The question being , how soon are we going to run out of air and water. [a brochure] http://nh3fuel.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/nh3brochuresept2010.pdf http://nh3fuel.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/nh3brochuresept20... [keynote Tenth Annual NH3 Fuel Conference, September 23, 2013] http://nh3fuel.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/nh3fcx-keynote-steve-wittrig.pdf http://nh3fuel.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/nh3fcx-keynote-st...
mikeyouse 12y ago
This is a potentially world-changing development. If their figures are correct, and we handicap this technology to only see a 10% improvement vs. Haber-Bosch, that's still a savings of over 300 million megawatt hours annually with the added benefit of cheaper food worldwide since nitrogen is one of the largest costs in agriculture. I highly recommend the book, "The Alchemy of Air" about the creation of the Haber-Bosch process. http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemy-Air-Scientific-Discovery/dp/0307351793/ http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemy-Air-Scientific-Discovery/d... The subtitle doesn't do the book justice, but fixing nitrogen might be the most important discovery in the history of humanity and Hager's book does a tremendous job in telling the story.
- hcarvalhoalves 12y ago
  > This is a potentially world-changing development. ... potentially negative? It seems cheap, abundant nitrogen fertilizers is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Saves energy and increases other problems by an order of magnitude: water poisoning, algae blooms, impact on the fishing industry, acid rain and other problems by caused by NO2, nutrient depletion (by soil acidification), intoxication by metals (Al, Cu)...
  - mikeyouse 12y ago
    > It seems cheap, abundant nitrogen fertilizers is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Completely hyperbolic. Nothing you've described will be any more likely with cheaper Nitrogen. Modern farms are extremely nitrogen efficient and runoff can easily be eliminated if the farms are incentivized to do so (aka appropriately regulated). Artificially keeping the price of fertilizer high as a pollution-control measure is needlessly cruel to the poor. In many countries, the poor spend over 50% of their income on food. Reducing the cost of a main food input by a substantial portion would mean an immediate raise in the standard of living for some of the world's poorest people. It would also open up previously inhospitable areas to agriculture, further helping those in less fortunate circumstances.

5 points by Shivetya 12y ago

Combined with the fact that ammonia can be used as a fuel, they are making fuel out of air & water in that case.The question being , how soon are we going to run out of air and water. [a brochure] http://nh3fuel.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/nh3brochuresept2010.pdf http://nh3fuel.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/nh3brochuresept20... [keynote Tenth Annual NH3 Fuel Conference, September 23, 2013] http://nh3fuel.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/nh3fcx-keynote-steve-wittrig.pdf http://nh3fuel.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/nh3fcx-keynote-st...

mikeyouse 12y ago

This is a potentially world-changing development. If their figures are correct, and we handicap this technology to only see a 10% improvement vs. Haber-Bosch, that's still a savings of over 300 million megawatt hours annually with the added benefit of cheaper food worldwide since nitrogen is one of the largest costs in agriculture. I highly recommend the book, "The Alchemy of Air" about the creation of the Haber-Bosch process. http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemy-Air-Scientific-Discovery/dp/0307351793/ http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemy-Air-Scientific-Discovery/d... The subtitle doesn't do the book justice, but fixing nitrogen might be the most important discovery in the history of humanity and Hager's book does a tremendous job in telling the story.

hcarvalhoalves 12y ago
> This is a potentially world-changing development. ... potentially negative? It seems cheap, abundant nitrogen fertilizers is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Saves energy and increases other problems by an order of magnitude: water poisoning, algae blooms, impact on the fishing industry, acid rain and other problems by caused by NO2, nutrient depletion (by soil acidification), intoxication by metals (Al, Cu)...
- mikeyouse 12y ago
  > It seems cheap, abundant nitrogen fertilizers is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Completely hyperbolic. Nothing you've described will be any more likely with cheaper Nitrogen. Modern farms are extremely nitrogen efficient and runoff can easily be eliminated if the farms are incentivized to do so (aka appropriately regulated). Artificially keeping the price of fertilizer high as a pollution-control measure is needlessly cruel to the poor. In many countries, the poor spend over 50% of their income on food. Reducing the cost of a main food input by a substantial portion would mean an immediate raise in the standard of living for some of the world's poorest people. It would also open up previously inhospitable areas to agriculture, further helping those in less fortunate circumstances.