This startup makes ammonia by turning the planet into a chemical reactor

As an ingredient in fertilizer, ammonia keeps the world fed—and researchers are exploring ways it could someday power homes or vehicles. But producing it today relies heavily on fossil fuels. 

Now, reports Alex Knapp, Addis Energy—a startup co-founded by Iwnetim Abate and Yet-Ming Chiang—is experimenting with the Earth itself “as a chemical reactor” to make ammonia more sustainably, potentially yielding it at one-third the cost of conventional methods. 

Here’s how it works: the team identifies iron-rich rocky formations underground, then injects them with water, nitrogen, and a chemical catalyst. “That causes the oxygen in the water to bind with the iron in the rocks—making rust—freeing the hydrogen, which reacts with nitrogen to form ammonia,” Knapp writes. 

Read more in Forbes.