Nilwala Kottegoda

SMART N FERTILIZER for EINSTEIN FARMERS

Bench to Field

2

Feeding 7 Billion World Population?

One billion people suffer from chronic hunger

Scientific American, Nov. 2011

For Better Crop Yields??

Plant nutrients

Agrochemicals

Food plays a major role for good health

Good agriculture practices are the

key to quality crop yields

Innovations and Nanotechnology 2009

> 6000 patents

< 400 patents

“You can shoot it in my veins but don’t make me eat it.”

Current Issues with Fertilizer

6

Low solubility and complexation

leads to lower absorption by plants.

50 – 70 % wasted as emissions

and as water soluble compounds,

leading to lower efficiency and

several environmental issues

Rock phosphate Potash

High solubility and

unavailablity for plants

Balance between all 3 nutrients is essential for healthy crop yields

Nitrogen Recovery Efficiency by Major Cereals

• Nitrogen use efficiency … “rarely exceeds 70% ……. often ranges from 30-60%”

• “conversion of N inputs to products for arable crops can be 60-70% or even more” (Kitchen and Goulding, 2001)

Nitrogen Revolution

For Better Crop Yields??

Can Slow Dance of a Molecule Contribute Global Fertilizer Issues??

Challenge - Cost Effective - Efficient - Environmentally Friendly

Veranja Karunaratne, Nilwala Kottegoda, Ajith De Alwis, Nanotechnology in a World Out of Balance, Journal of National Science Foundation, 2012 40: 3-8.

1.

Slow release N with improved P availability???

Can we use nature’s rules???

Hydroxyapatite nanoparticles in collagon fibers

A Platform for slow release fertilizer applications

Bench scale validation and characterization

O

O

O

O

C

C C

C

N

N

N

N

N N

N N

HA nanoparticle

Possible Bonding Modes

XPS, FTIR and Raman characterizations reveled the change in electron density around N P, Ca

N 40% P2O5 6%

Urea modified Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles Average particle diameter 20- 60 nm

Bench – Mini pilot plant

HA – Urea Nanofertilizer system

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5

5.5

6.0

6.5

7.0

7.5

8.0

8.5

Yie

ld (

t/h

a)

Treatment

Granular urea

U- HA Nanofertilizer

T1 - No fertilizer

T2 - Granular urea (total of 100 kg/ha) as three applications at two weeks intervals

after seeds were broadcasted, 30, 40 and 30 kg/ha, respectively

T3 – urea-HA nanohybrid (6:1) (total of 50 kg/ha equal to 50% of DOA) as three

applications at two weeks intervals after seeds were broadcasted, 15, 20 and 15

kg/ha, respectively

Fertilizer Usage (2007-2012)

Year

Total Fertilizer

Qty(Mt)

2007 666,349

2008 743,646

2009 900,000

2010 933000

2012 923,000

19

30 % recovery

Recovery of urea 158,000 mt

Urea imports - 2011 528,000 mt

Urea losses 210,000 mt

Cost for urea US $ 132 M

lost of money US $ 308 M

Cost for urea US $ 440 M

70 % lost to the environment

Saving of 10 % urea estimated to save US $ 44 M, while minimizing the affects to the environment.

Data obtained from fertilizer secretariat

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

World and regional growth I n fertilizer demand, 2014 to 2018

N 1S XPS Spectra

Ca 2p XPS Spectra

P 2p XPS Spectra

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis

Urea HA only HA-Urea