Project description
New technology makes nitrogen fertiliser out of thin air
Nitrogen-based fertilisers are a staple of agriculture and horticulture across the world, but synthetic fertiliser is environmentally costly, relying on large amounts of energy and extracted raw materials, and contributing a lot of pollution. A new project Plan2fix is bringing a revolutionary new approach to market: nitrogen-enriched water made using atmospheric nitrogen. The project has patented a technology that uses plasma nitrogen fixation to dissolve atmospheric nitrogen into plasma-activated water, and is now aiming to sell this innovative product in the greenhouse horticulture sector. Plan2fix will provide the agriculture sector with lower cultivation costs, decreased dependency on third parties, ensured availability of fertilisers, and a drastic reduction in emissions.
Objective
Horticultural producers fertilise their crops with Nitrogen (N) to ensure healthy and abundant yields that meet the needs of an increasing population. EU greenhouse farmers spend € 808 M yearly in synthetic N-fertilisers, which are energy-intensive to produce, heavily dependent on fossil fuels and very pollutant. Moreover, the supply chain of synthetic N-fertilisers entails a great amount of GHG emissions, with costs estimated at €14 B/yr. Fertilisation with synthetic fertilisers is unsustainable particularly in EU as the price of N is highly dependent on changes in the price of natural gas.
VitalFluid brings to market a sustainable and non-polluting alternative to current synthetic N-fertilisers. Our PLAsma Nitrogen FIXation technology provides an on-the-spot production of liquid N-fertiliser that makes the current supply chain of fertilisers redundant. Only with air, water and electricity from renewable sources, our innovative patented plasma activation technology extracts N directly from the air and dissolve it into Plasma Activated Water (PAW) which is nitrate-enriched water ready to be supplied to crops. PLAN2FIX will provide the agriculture sector and society with lower cultivation costs and third parties’ dependency, ensured availability of fertilisers and a drastic reduction of GHG emissions.
With 500,000 Ha of greenhouses in the world and 210,000 Ha in EU, our short-term target customers are professional greenhouse horticulture growers which require more fertilisers per hectare due to intensive cultivation practice. We aim at entering leading countries in the greenhouse and advanced farming: Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Poland & UK in the first 5 years. We will sell directly in NL while will rely on a distribution network outside NL. From 2022 until 2026, we expect 450 units sold, €44.5 M of cumulated revenue, EBITDA of € 22M and a ROI(5Y) of 5.53. The payback of the investment is less than 2 years and we will create 22 new job positions.
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
5656 AE EINDHOVEN
Netherlands
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.