DIY experimental reactor harnesses the Birkeland-Eyde process
blog.arduino.cc
blog.arduino.cc
However calcium nitrate, potassium nitrate production via B-E looks really interesting.
"Due to the emergence of low cost renewable electricity from solar and wind, there is renewed interest in decentralized opportunities for electricity-driven nitrogen fixation."
"This analysis shows that the energy consumption for NOX synthesis with plasma technology is almost competitive with the commercial process with its current best value of 2.4 MJ mol N−1, which is required to decrease further to about 0.7 MJ mol N−1 in order to become fully competitive"
Note that this measure of competitivity is based on energy, not cost. So the (intermittently) ultra-low cost of electrical energy generated by modern PV installations (where substantial overprovisioning is becoming normal) has not been taken into account.
An Agri-PV installation that produces all the fertilizer it needs from its own surplus electricity would be cool indeed.
Ammonium nitrate is preferred because it provides more nitrogen per weight, i.e. at similar transportation costs with the alternatives, and also because introducing a too great amount of metal cations together with the nitrate, e.g. potassium or calcium, can be detrimental for the soil and can make it too alkaline after the nitrate is consumed.
Urine collection.
Though I guess it's an interesting way to obtain nitric acid for individuals, since access to it is quite restricted otherwise.
There's a reason for that, of course.
Though, I gotta say that his fucking power supply gives me the heebie-jeebies just watching on Youtube. Electrical is one thing, but I know better than to look at high-voltage cross-eyed...