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ASH CLOUDAuthor: Ash Sweeting
This is series of conversations discussing global food sustainability with guests who bring a deep understanding of the environmental and cultural challenges facing our society and creative ideas on how to address them. Language: en-au Genres: Earth Sciences, Science, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Low cost, locally produced zero emissions nitrogen fertilizer with Frere Byrne PlasmaLeap Technologies
Episode 72
Thursday, 22 January, 2026
Over the last century our food systems have become increasingly reliant on synthetic nitrogen. This nitrogen fertilizer is mostly made through the energy intensive haber-bosch process in centralized production plants, often located in politically sensitive location, that have a carbon footprint multiple times greater than the aviation industry. Today we are joined by Frere Byrne of PlasmaLeap Technologies who is developing low cost mobile technology to systhesis zero emissions ammonia from air and water. I caught up with Frere to discuss the impact of locally produced nitrogen that is not relaint on fossil feuls and long and centralized supply chainsPlasmaLeap's modular chemical plants—called NFix—operate as single 40-foot containerized units producing industrial-grade nitrates and ammonia from air, water, and renewable electricity. These units run autonomously using algorithms, requiring no specialized operators and can be controlled remotely from company desks. For large-scale applications, units stack like batteries to create regional facilities. For smallholder farmers, Plasma Leap has developed miniature versions funded through a Gates Foundation grant, targeting production costs below the lowest commodity urea prices of the past 20-30 years.The technology addresses identical challenges across vastly different farming contexts. Whether a one-hectare subsistence farm in sub-Saharan Africa or a 100,000-hectare cereal operation in Australia, farmers face volatile input prices, intermittent supply chains, and little control over product quality. Send us a text
