Green Fertilizer Made with Air and Plasma: NitroCapt (Sweden) wins $2M Food Planet Prize 2025 for developing low-emission fertilizers
Nitrogen fertilizers are used for 50% of the world's food production and emit as much carbon dioxide as the aviation industry. Sweden-based NitroCapt has developed a novel, energy-efficient process that makes fertilizer through plasma-produced nitrate. NitroCapt's technology could improve access to green fertilizer across the world.
In awarding the Prize to NitroCapt, the Food Planet Prize jury Co-Chair Johan Rockström commented:
"Through NitroCapt's innovation, nitrogen fertilizer can now be produced by splitting nitrogen from the air with plasma technology simply needing green electricity as input. This technology reduces the use of energy tenfold, can be produced locally, avoids fossil-fuels entirely, while producing a nitrate fertilizer that can improve soil health and may be used sustainably by farmers across the world."
Gustaf Forsberg, CEO and Founder of NitroCapt, added:
"NitroCapt's mission is to decarbonize the nitrogen fertilizer industry. The current fossil-based process has reached its end point. We can also contribute to increased food production in areas that today have difficulties producing sufficient amounts. We are just about to finalize our industrial-scale pilot, and we have fertilizer in the field, but we're still not at the scale where we want to be.
This Prize will be very important for us to bring our technology to the stage where we can start making a difference."
About the Food Planet Prize
The Curt Bergfors Food Planet Prize was established in Sweden in 2019, in acknowledgement of the perils that our current food systems pose to the health of people and the planet. The Prize supports initiatives that significantly reduce the environmental impact of the way we eat today. Unlike many awards, the Food Planet Prize recognizes initiatives for their potential future impact on the environment rather than past achievements. The Food Planet Prize's international jury consists of 10 leading specialists in complex Food Planet challenges. The jury is co-chaired by Johan Rockström and Magnus Nilsson.
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