What’s new in fertilizer products

INNOVATION SHOWCASE

What’s new in fertilizer products

We highlight recent innovations, including fertilizers recovered from industrial residues, novel controlled-release coatings, and products that incorporate biological components designed to benefit both crop nutrition and soil heath.

CINIS

‘Upcycled’ SOP from Cinis Fertilizer

Cinis Fertilizer started production at its inaugural 100,000 t/a capacity potassium sulphate (SOP) plant at Örnsköldsvik, Köpmanholmen, Sweden, on 4th June. The plant will also produce 65,000 t/a of sodium chloride as a co-product. The plant has taken around 15 months to construct following ground breaking at the site in February 2023.

This Örnsköldsvik plant is powered by renewable energy and upcycles industrial residues – including sodium sulphate (Na2 SO4 ) from electric car battery manufacturing and ashes from pulp mills – to produce SOP using patented technology (Figure 1). This first-of-its-kind production method uses half as much energy as conventional SOP production, according to Cinis.

The company quotes an energy consumption of 50,000 MWh for its production process versus 100,000 MWh for conventional manufacture, based on a 100,000 tonnes of SOP production. The result, says Cinis, is a fertilizer with a low carbon footprint making a “unique and circular contribution” to sustainable agriculture.

Cinis Fertilizer inaugurated its first SOP production plant in Sweden in early June. The plant upcycles industrial residues.

PHOTO: CINIS

The SOP obtained at Örnsköldsvik will be sold and marketed by Van Iperen

International as GreenSwitch Potassium Sulphate, a pure and fully water-soluble SOP product, with significantly reduced CO2 emissions, that is suitable for foliar and fertigation applications.

Fig 1: Cinis Fertilizer’s manufacturing process for GreenSwitch potassium sulphate (SOP)

“Cinis Fertilizer addresses a critical challenge for mankind – how we in a sustainable way are able to continue to supply enough food for a growing population. Mineral fertilizers have – and continue to be – crucial for the world’s food production. As an agronomist, I am extremely proud to be part of the development towards high-quality mineral fertilizers with a low climate footprint. Van Iperen is ready to distribute potassium sulphate from Cinis Fertilizer under our ‘GreenSwitch’ concept,” commented Erik van den Bergh, Managing Director of Van Iperen International.

“Thanks to everyone who made it possible for us to inaugurate Cinis Fertilizer’s first production facility today. I am proud of what we have achieved, and I am grateful for the support I have received since the start of the company. Today we have reached an important milestone with the production of potassium sulphate and sodium chloride. We have achieved this in record time,” said Jakob Liedberg, founder and CEO of Cinis Fertilizer, at the inauguration ceremony in June.

Cinis has plans to build similar SOP production plants in Hopkinsville, Kentucky in the US (300,000 t/a capacity) and Skellefteå, Sweden (200,000 t/a capacity), with first production scheduled for late 2025 and late 2026, respectively.

Cinis Fertilizer uses the Glaserite process to manufacture SOP (Figure 1). This should have a low technical risk – as a tried and tested method of producing SOP that dates from the 1950s. The two input materials for the process are sodium sulphate (Na2 SO4 ) and potassium chloride (KCl, also known as muriate of potash,

MOP). The ‘circular’ production process runs on renewable electricity, generates no emissions and recycles all its water, according to Cinis.

In September last year, Cinis Fertilizer signed a long-term purchasing and delivery agreement with German potash producer K+S for the supply of potassium chloride to its Örnsköldsvik and Skellefteå production plants in Sweden. This could see K+S offtake SOP from Cinis in future.

“We are pleased that K+S chooses to confirm the previous declaration of intent regarding cooperation [on] our important input product, potassium chloride. The agreement safeguards our production plan. Furthermore, K+S confirms their interest to take the potassium sulphate fertilizer produced by Cinis Fertilizer from further plants,” said Jakob Liedberg.

The need to maximise crop productivity while minimising impacts on the environment is fuelling significant R&D expenditure covering all aspects of agriculture inputs. It is also a challenge the fertilizer industry is working diligently to address.

Global food demand is expected to be 60 percent higher than current levels by 2050, according to Dr Upendra Singh, Vice President, Research, at the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), a trend which will require much greater agricultural production while using less resources. Fertilizer innovations that increase yields while safeguarding the environment are undoubtedly needed to play a large part in meeting rising food demand and ensuring a food-secure world in future.

Need for Next Gen Innovation

Pursell Agri-Tech is a manufacturer of controlled-release fertilizer (CRF) based in Sylacauga, Alabama, USA.

Pursell’s CRF products deliver nutrients in a precise, prescriptive manner, helping growers achieve a high level of efficiency. They function by improving the synchronisation of fertilizer nutrient release with plant nutrient uptake, and significantly reduce nutrient losses via volatilization and leaching, when compared to uncoated urea.

Multiple years of agronomic testing by universities and growers have shown that PurYield® – Pursell’s broadacre CRF product – can deliver a 3-7 percent bushel/acre increase in corn yields.

In 2020, the EPA, in partnership with USDA, introduced two fertilizer industry challenges aimed at accelerating the development and use of affordable product technologies that reduce the environmental impacts of US corn production.

Pursell was named a winner of the Next Gen Fertilizer Innovations Challenge. This recognises currently marketed fertilizers that help reduce the environmental impacts from row crop agriculture while maintaining or increasing agricultural productivity and profitability. Pursell also has advanced to Stage 2 of the Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers (EEF): Environmental and Agronomic Challenge, which identifies EEFs that reduce the environmental release of nitrogen and phosphorus.

CRF challenges on the horizon

Despite the significant environmental benefits CRFs bring, versus their uncoated alternatives, they are under increased scrutiny due to the polymer composition of the coating shell. Consequently, Pursell Agri-Tech and its industry partners are proactively seeking alternative approaches to eliminate the potential risk of microplastic accumulation in the soil that can occur with the use of controlled-release fertilizers.

“Developed in collaboration with coating formulation experts, our urethane chemistry allows us to apply a thin, pliable and durable coating membrane which minimizes the amount of urethane polymer being added to soil,” said Tim Holt, Pursells Director of Research and Development. “In one year of applying PurYield to corn at an application rate of 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre, the polymer would make up only 0.00024 percent of an acre (ft.3 ) of soil.”

Polymer encapsulation systems for fertilizer, like the system used by Pursell Agri-Tech, are currently within the scope of a restriction established by the EU (European Union) Fertilizing Products Regulation. Outside of the EU, there are no government regulations or timelines for the implementation of regulations applying to non-biodegradable coated fertilizer. However, new biodegradability standards are expected in the EU in the next two years and both the US and Canada are performing internal reviews to evaluate whether plastic coated fertilizers are a major contributor to microplastic pollution.

Biodegradable technology unlocks new possibilities

In December 2023, Pursell filed a patent on a technology that will enable the company to produce polyurethane-coated fertilizer specifically engineered to incorporate a microbe consortium that degrades the coating shell, reducing it to carbon dioxide, water and organic matter – once the product has delivered nutrients to the plants in a controlled manner.

“Our research has shown that the use of controlled-release fertilizers is an effective approach to improve nutrient use efficiency and reduce environmental pollutants,” said Dr Upendra Singh, IFDC Vice President, Research. “We are currently performing degradation tests on Pursell’s biodegradable coating technology and are excited about the additional soil health benefits it may offer.”

In addition, Pursell’s patented, lower-temperature coating process enables the incorporation and survival of biostimulants and microbes. This unique capability allows Pursell to deliver a biodegradable CRF product that combines nutrient uptake with a biostimulant package tailored to a crop’s specific needs.

“We believe the coating technology used to produce PurYield, which has demonstrated a proven ability to precisely meter our nutrients synced with plant uptake, is too valuable to the farmer, the population, and the environment to abandon for an alternative coating chemistry or process that is not commercialized or proven,” said Holt.

“What makes our biodegradable technology so special and practical is the fact that the fertilizer coating degradation is not dependent on specific microbes being present in the soil or water. Each granule of our biodegradable PurYield product will contain the right amount of specially formulated, safe microbes to degrade the residual coating shell once nutrients have been delivered to the plant,” he added.

Initial biodegradable product field trials are being conducted this spring in university and industry grower trials in the US Midwest and Southeast, as well as in Canada. These are targeting corn production.

InnoSolve BCT from Innovar Ag

Innovar Ag is an established speciality fertilizer producer based in Bradenton, Florida, USA, and currently market products in over 35 Countries. The company has aggressive international expansion plans and has set itself the goal of doubling its marketing reach to 70 Countries by the end of next year.

Innovar has been eyeing the lucrative and fast growing global biofertilizers market. This was worth $3.1billion in 2023, according to some estimates, and is projected to reach $5.2 billion by 2028, a growth rate of around 10-11 percent per annum.

Unsurprisingly, given its double digit cumulative annual growth rates, the biologicals market is now attracting significant attention.

“Innovar Ag is excited about the biologicals market opportunity,” says Andrew Semple, the company’s chairman and CEO. “As evidence of that, we recently launched InnoSolve BCT, a new product formula in this category.”

BCT stands for ‘BioCatalyst Technology’, a proprietary enzymatic technology developed by Innovar. InnoSolve BCT is based on a proven prescription formula of 80 species of beneficial bacteria and fungi. It is also filled with crop nutrients.

BCT is a probiotic biological product that functions by accelerating soil microbial activity to stimulate plant growth and establishment. It is offered as a water-soluble powder containing:

• Soil flora and fauna activators with vegetal protein hydrolysates
• Humic and fulvic acids
• Beneficial soil bacteria, fungi and rhizobia.

The product already chimes with customers and their needs, as Carrie Garcia, Innovar’s managing director, explains: “The significant market interest from Innovar’s existing customer base, has helped to drive the development of our new InnoSolve BCT biological product.”

The main benefits from using InnoSolve BCT, according to Innovar, includes its ability to:

• Increase soil fertility by improving soil structure, water retention, and nutrient availability.
• Help unlock and make available micronutrients and minerals for plant uptake.
• Promote plant growth, increase root development, and improve stress tolerance.
• Provide energy for beneficial soil microorganisms, help improve soil structure and nutrient availability.
• Provide beneficial soil bacteria to help fix nitrogen, solubilise nutrients, and protect plants from diseases and pests.

Dr Ray Asebedo, Vice President of Technology at Innovar Ag, was responsible for bringing InnoSolve BCT to market. “InnoSolve BCT combines proven beneficial bacteria and fungi to create the ideal synergistic effect in the rhizosphere for enhancing stress resilience and plant growth,” he said.