Growing a ‘green fertilizer’ industry in Minnesota

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture wants to build a green fertilizer industry in the state.

Officials believe a grant program will encourage agricultural cooperatives and rural electric cooperatives to get into the fertilizer business.

“It's brand new to the state, and it is actually the first of its kind in the nation,” said MDA Energy and Environment section leader Megan Lennon.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Morris have worked for years to develop the technology to make ammonia using wind energy. That research is now ready to become a distributed fertilizer production industry, said Lennon.

Much of the nitrogen fertilizer currently used by Minnesota farmers is is imported and a majority is made through an energy intensive process using natural gas.

Lennon said nitrogen fertilizer production produces about two percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions.

“So green fertilizer definitely has a climate benefit,” said Lennon. But producing fertilizer in Minnesota would also give farmers options outside of the current highly consolidated supply chain.

“Minnesota farmers spend hundreds of millions of dollars on fertilizers every year, and a lot of that money leaves the state and might even leave the country, because there's a lot of consolidation in in the fertilizer marketplace globally,” she said.

Minnesota Farmers Union hosted a green ammonia summit Dec. 10 in Morris, Minn.

The organization “is optimistic about the future of green ammonia and its potential to support family farmers and rural communities,” said Gary Wertish, president of the farmer’s union.

Lennon visualizes two potential models for “green fertilizer” production. One would be small facilities with on site wind or solar power that create ammonia. The other would be a larger facility co-located with an ethanol plant, using waste carbon dioxide to create urea, another form of commonly used fertilizer.

“For example, let's say there's one of these larger facilities that are co-located with an ethanol plant,” said Lennon. “If you produce 150,000 tons of urea per year, that would be enough enough nitrogen fertilizer for about a million acres.”

The $7 million grant program will help build infrastructure. Research shows making fertilizer with renewable energy can be economically viable, said Lennon and she thinks a federal tax credit established by the Inflation Reduction Act will also help grow the new industry.

The first round of grant applications opens Dec. 18.