April 4, 2017

Can We Use Solar Energy to Make Fertilizer Right on the Farm?​

Stanford and SLAC researchers are leading a multi-year effort to produce nitrogen-based fertilizers in a sustainable way, by inventing a solar-powered chemistry technology that can make it right on the farm and apply it directly to crops, drip-irrigation style.

Dig Deeper

Related stories

News Brief

The team reduced the amount of expensive platinum group metals needed to make an effective cell and found a new way to test future...

An illustration of a thin film resembling dry, cracked earth.
News Feature

Researchers demonstrate a way to remove the potent greenhouse gas from the exhaust of engines that burn natural gas.  

Illustration of bubbles of methane on surface of catalyst
News Feature

The SLAC-Stanford team pulled hydrogen directly from ocean waters. Their work could help efforts to generate low-carbon fuel for electric grids, cars, boats and...

This photograph shows ocean water funneling over rocks on about half of the photograph and deeper ocean water on the other part of the photograph. It is a view of the ocean from above, in the sky.
News Brief

The team reduced the amount of expensive platinum group metals needed to make an effective cell and found a new way to test future...

An illustration of a thin film resembling dry, cracked earth.
News Feature

Researchers demonstrate a way to remove the potent greenhouse gas from the exhaust of engines that burn natural gas.  

Illustration of bubbles of methane on surface of catalyst
News Feature

The SLAC-Stanford team pulled hydrogen directly from ocean waters. Their work could help efforts to generate low-carbon fuel for electric grids, cars, boats and...

This photograph shows ocean water funneling over rocks on about half of the photograph and deeper ocean water on the other part of the photograph. It is a view of the ocean from above, in the sky.
News Feature

Two GEM Fellows reflect on their summer internships at SLAC and share their thoughts on representation and mentorship.

Nate Keyes and Zariq George
News Feature

Encapsulating precious-metal catalysts in a web-like alumina framework could reduce the amount needed in catalytic converters – and our dependency on these scarce metals.

A web of red material encapsulates blue polyhedrons.
News Feature

Anchoring individual iridium atoms on the surface of a catalytic particle boosted its performance in carrying out a reaction that’s been a bottleneck for...

Illustration showing surface of a catalyst as a lattice work of atoms, with single iridium molecules held above it on tiny 8-sided structures to facilitate splitting of water molecules seen floating above