Toward waste as a resource — McMaster research could turn farm water pollution into fertilizer
Researchers at McMaster University have developed a new way to turn nitrate pollution in water into ammonia, an important ingredient in fertilizer, using renewable electricity. The discovery could be especially useful in rural Canada, where fertilizer runoff from farms can pollute rivers, lakes and groundwater, wrote researchers Navid Noor and Drew Higgins.
The new method could help clean polluted water while producing fertilizer and clean fuel without relying on the energy-intensive process used today. The research is still at the laboratory stage, and more testing is needed before it can be used on a large scale, they wrote.
“If they can, the payoff could be considerable,” said Noor and Higgins. “Wastewater treatment plants could become more than facilities that remove pollution; they could become local producers of fertilizer and clean fuel, powered by renewable electricity. Water utilities would gain a revenue stream. Farmers would gain a sustainable nitrogen source and the chemical industry would take a step toward a circular model where waste becomes a resource.”
