Growing the Future

Turning Air Pollution Into Fertilizer

Episode Summary

Dr. Thomas Papadopoulos, Director of Research and Development at UK based Crop Intellect, joins Dan to explain A-Leaf, a mineral spray that captures atmospheric nitrous oxide and converts it into plant available nitrate using nothing but ordinary sunlight. He walks through the science behind the photocatalytic process, the independently validated carbon removal results, and the skepticism he still runs into from producers who have seen plenty of overhyped inputs before. The tension is that nitrous oxide is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide yet gets a fraction of the attention, while a viable tool to address it already exists and is still working to reach Canadian farms. Producers walk away with a clear picture of how the technology works, what it's already proven, and what it would take to see it here.

Episode Notes

Nitrous oxide is 265 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, stays in the atmosphere for over a century, and almost nobody is talking about it. Dr. Thomas Papadopoulos, Director of Research and Development at Crop Intellect in the UK, joins Dan to explain A-Leaf, a mineral spray that uses ordinary sunlight, not UV, to convert atmospheric nitrous oxide directly into nitrate fertilizer on the leaf surface.

What's Inside

• Why nitrous oxide gets almost no attention next to carbon dioxide and methane, despite its outsized climate impact
• How a photocatalytic mineral coating converts air pollution into usable nitrogen using normal daylight
• Why one independently validated trial, measured against the European Innovation Council's Climate Impact Focus Tool, showed 5.4 tons of CO2-equivalent removed per hectare per two liters applied
• Yield increases of up to 20% recorded in cereals and peas, and why the product has mostly been used to add yield rather than replace synthetic nitrogen so far
• Why he'd rather answer a skeptical producer honestly than oversell a technology still proving itself field by field

Connect with Tolis: 

Website: cropintellect.co.uk

Twitter: cropintellect

Facebook: Crop Intellect Ltd

Linkedin: apostolospapadopoulos

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Facts sourced from The Alchemy of Air written by Thomas Hager