Morris, Minn.-University of Minnesota Renewable Energy Center researchers expect to have a test plant using wind power to produce anhydrous ammonia up and running by the end of the year. Construction on the Morris plant began earlier this month, according to Michael Reese, director of the center, and should produce fertilizer by the end of the year using surplus energy generated onsite by a 1.65-megawatt wind turbine that already helps power the nearby campus. Reese explained that hydrogen is produced through electrolysis. Hydrogen and oxygen will be separated from water and wind electrical energy in an electrolyzer by a series of cells with special membranes under charge. In a different process, nitrogen will be separated from air via a molecular sieve. Then, under the appropriate pressure and temperature, hydrogen and nitrogen will be introduced together into a reactor and passed through a catalyst bed. A portion of the hydrogen and nitrogen will form NH3 in a modified Haber Bosch high pressure process. The test plant will produce fertilizer for use on university farm land. But Reese and his associates believe a similar system in which fertilizer is produced and sold nearby could contribute to the local economy. It also would take advantage of the region’s wind potential while skirting that industry’s main hurdle of needing expensive transmission lines to ship electricity east to the urban areas that need it, Reese said. The question is whether a renewably produced fertilizer can compete in the market. At the current price of about $500 a ton, that would be difficult. But if prices return to the near-$1,200-per-ton range seen a couple of years ago, “then sure, I believe it would work,” Reese said.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain