NSF Award
2316481
With approximately 300 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) contributes to 7% of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020. 74% of N2O emission comes from agricultural fertilizer applications. The atmospheric concentration of N2O has been increasing at a rate of 2% per decade, driven largely by intensified fertilization in meeting the ever-growing demand for food, fiber, and energy. Despite the strong link to fertilization, N2O emission remains to be a complex problem arising from scientific, technological, economical, ecological, and societal factors. Understanding and therefore curbing N2O emissions urgently calls for effective collaborations through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. This NSF EPSCoR Track II FEC project brings together a multidisciplinary team of scientists from Iowa State University (ISU) and Wichita State University (WSU) to explore and examine green urea that could enable the paradigm shift of fertilization towards N2O- and CO2-relieved farming and ranching. This research project has the potential to set the foundation of fostering collaborations and associations in both GHG N2O reduction and green fertilizer promotion across academia, government, industries, agriculture, and communities, therefore strengthening the sustained R&D capacity and competitiveness. While producing green fertilizers, the capture of waste nitrogen and CO2 will also help protect ecological and environmental systems in Midwest areas from being stressed by existing non-sustainable practices, ensuring longer-term economic thriving and prosperity. The distributed feature of green fertilizer technology holds a great potential to create higher-wage jobs for local farming/ranching regions, especially for low-income minorities in rural areas, thus expanding capabilities and opportunities for agricultural communities that are disproportionately affected by climate change.<br/><br/>The overarching objective of this collaborative project is to promote N2O- and CO2-relieved nitrogen fertilizers (green urea as the focus) with economic resilience and environmental consciousness as an innovative way to mitigate the challenges posed upon climate change-threatened Midwest farming and ranching communities. Two EPSCoR jurisdictions, ISU in Iowa and WSU in Kansas, will work side-by-side to channel concerted efforts into the following research themes: i) the advanced separation for waste nitrogen capture and product purification; ii) the innovative electrolysis for synthesizing green urea; iii) the synergistic investigation of nitrogen sensing, modeling, and fertilizer utilization; and iv) the societal examination for community acceptance and policy changes towards green fertilizers. The success of this EPSCoR project will enable an electro-manufacturing system powered by renewable energy (wind and sunlight) to produce green nitrogen fertilizers that are fundamentally different from current thermo-manufacturing processes that consume non-renewable fossil energy (coal, petroleum, and natural gas), which alleviates agriculture’s impact on climate change, while ensuring the sustainability of Midwest farming and ranching. The research outcome will lead to deep understanding of GHG N2O emission, nitrate upcycling, urea synthesis, CO2 capture and conversion, and nitrogen fertilizer utilization in agriculture. It will also open a new avenue for new generations of technologies for N2O and nitrate sensing, anion-selective membrane, and efficient chemical manufacturing. Simultaneously, the project execution enhances research competitiveness and develops research capacity and infrastructure in Kansas and Iowa (both physical and human resources) and grows the participants’ reputation and competence in their fields. Based on great synergy between Kansas and Iowa in shared common problems and united interest in agricultural prosperity, two EPSCoR universities will offer a unique educational platform that aims at raising general public awareness in the Midwest on nitrogen-cycle management, as well as training the next-generation of workforce for sustainable agriculture. In particular, the EPSCoR team is partnering with the minority-serving institution, Dodge City Community College (DC3), in mentoring minority students and in training minority-teaching instructors in the closely aligned areas including “agricultural science” and “farm and ranch management”.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
