The ‘brutal reality’ of scaling low-carbon fertilizer

This news is about farm fertilizer, not home energy upgrades, but here's what it covers. Making nitrogen fertilizer takes a lot of fossil fuel and produces 5 to 7% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. A company called Nitricity first tried to build small devices farmers could use on their own fields to make fertilizer without that heavy carbon footprint. That plan did not hold up against market realities, so the company shifted course.

Nitricity now runs a centralized plant in California that turns recycled almond shells into liquid organic fertilizer. In a podcast interview, the company's CEO, Nico Pinkowski, talks about how hard it was to scale a new approach inside such an established industry, the challenges of financing a first-of-its-kind commercial plant, and why he sees decarbonizing fertilizer as increasingly urgent.

There is nothing here that affects your house, your utility bills, or any rebate program. It is a look at how one company is trying to clean up a different part of the economy, agriculture, rather than home heating, cooling, or insulation.