Ammonia may conjure thoughts of off odors, but the world is entirely dependent on the smelly stuff as a fertilizer and for use in myriad other industr

NitroFix wants to use electricity to make ammonia without the pollution

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2024-11-18 13:00:04

Ammonia may conjure thoughts of off odors, but the world is entirely dependent on the smelly stuff as a fertilizer and for use in myriad other industries. Problem is, nearly all the ammonia produced today is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Making the compound releases more than 450 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, according to the International Energy Agency, around 2% of global emissions.

There are plenty of alternatives, but none of them have been able to compete with the polluting status quo. Part of the problem is that the process to create ammonia, known as Haber-Bosch, has benefited from more than a century of refinement. 

One startup, though, hopes to give Haber-Bosch a run for its money by reducing the number of steps it takes to get from raw ingredients to finished ammonia. NitroFix, a finalist in the Startup Battlefield competition at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, transforms water and air into the vital compound by feeding the two through a device known as an electrolyzer.

NitroFix isn’t the first to do so, but co-founder and CEO Ophira Melamed thinks a proprietary compound her company uses gives it an edge. The catalyst, which helps facilitate key chemical reactions, works when submerged in water, something Melamed said is unusual. That allows the company to make hydrogen in the same container where it’s used to make ammonia. 

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