Washington : The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is allocating $36 million to develop technologies that reduce emissions caused by using synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on corn and sorghum for ethanol production, reports The Print. The funding will support projects that reduce the amount of fertilizer needed for farms while maintaining crop yields, the agency stated on Thursday.
Agriculture is responsible for approximately 11% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Nitrous oxide emissions, which are partly caused by the application of nitrogen fertilizer, account for about half of these agricultural emissions.
The ethanol industry stands to benefit from this initiative as it seeks to reduce emissions and capitalize on federal and state subsidy programs. This is increasingly important as the rise of electric vehicles reduces the gasoline market. Ethanol producers faced a challenge in April when the Treasury Department issued guidance making it nearly impossible for ethanol to qualify for a sustainable aviation fuel tax credit included in the Inflation Reduction Act.
N. Wang, director of the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program, said, “Given the importance of agriculture to the energy sector and our economy, technologies that reduce fertilizer-related energy emissions associated with ethanol, while shrinking operational costs and maintaining crop yields for the American farmer, are essential”.
