To some people, algae is just the gross-looking green stuff floating on the surface of a pond. But that gross-looking green stuff is capable of pretty amazing things. Algae has been used to produce biofuels for decades, taking one step toward cleaning up the energy sector. Now, according to the BBC, algae could help clean up the agricultural sector while producing more fruitful yields for farmers.
NouriSol, a company that creates sustainable fertilizer, has concluded trials that show algae-based fertilizer increased crop yields by 21% compared with chemical fertilizer. That's big news considering the threat to the global food supply posed by the overheating of the planet. But algae-based fertilizer helps with that too.
According to researchers at the University of Cambridge, fertilizer is responsible for about 5% of planet-warming pollution, more than global aviation and shipping combined. Two-thirds takes place after it's spread on the fields, and one-third takes place during production.
Only about half of the chemical fertilizer spread onto fields is taken up by the plants. The other half either runs off into nearby waterways or is broken down by microbes in the soil, releasing planet-warming gases into the atmosphere.
Plus, ammonia is a major component of chemical fertilizer, and it's manufactured using high pressure and high temperatures. The energy that process requires generally comes from dirty energy sources.
NouriSol, on the other hand, creates fertilizer by gathering soil, which contains about 5 million microalgae per gram. The best algae is selected and then scaled up and applied to crops.
Besides reducing the damage caused by the production and use of chemical fertilizer, algae-based fertilizer actively removes such gases from the air. It captures carbon and nitrogen from the air as it grows and continues to do so once applied to the soil.
The end result is a cooler planet, cleaner water, and an ability to grow more food.
"Farmers are under a lot of pressure with the changing regulations to farm sustainably and produce more and we are allowing them to do that as well as improve their profits," NouriSol CEO Marine Valton said.
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