Scientists at the UK’s Farming Innovation Programme have been awarded £1 million to investigate the potential for a foliar photocatalyst-and-endophyte prototype to help cereal and oilseed crops generate their own nitrogen while reducing air pollution. The project, through Innovate UK, is led by Crop Intellect along with a six-partner project consortium.
“The photocatalyst being used is known as R-Leaf, which is specially processed titanium dioxide that uses daylight to capture and convert nitrogen oxides (NOx), known as air pollutants, directly into crop-usable nitrates,” said Dr. Apostolos Papadopoulos, founder of Crop Intellect.
“These small but continuous doses of nitrate add up to an average of 50kg N/ha during the growing season,” Papadopoulos said. “Extensive independent trials have demonstrated R-Leaf’s positive impact on crop productivity, with a 6% yield increase seen in cereals. Data also shows that R-Leaf can decrease the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers by up to 25%.”
In addition to converting NOx pollutants into nitrates, R-Leaf also breaks down nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas (GHG) known to be 265 times more potent than CO2, into benign nitrogen and oxygen.
“Farmers could therefore utilize this technology to reduce their net GHG emissions, making this a unique opportunity for farmers to help move towards their net-zero emission targets,” Papadopoulos added. “The estimated effect of R-Leaf’s N2O capture is 5.4 mt of CO2 per hectare, per year. Eventually, farmers may also be able to monetize their climate-change mitigation from using the proposed technology.”