Technologies to Emend and Obviate SYnthetic Nitrogen’s Toll on Emissions
Program Description:
TEOSYNTE aims to lower harmful nitrous oxide emissions from the cultivation of corn and sorghum used for U.S. ethanol production by 50%. The program focuses on plant and microbial bio-design strategies that reduce the application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on corn and sorghum fields, while maintaining crop yields.
Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, which uses natural gas as a feedstock, is typically overapplied in present-day farming practices to account for plant uptake and loss of nitrogen to the environment. Current approaches to managing nitrogen fertilizer and reducing nitrous oxide emissions in biofuel crop production are not sufficient due to high cost, a need for new cultivars, and inconsistent performance in field settings.
TEOSYTNE has four technical categories:
- Category A: Crop breeding and genetic engineering approaches that alter plant physiology or plant architecture.
- Category B: Microbial approaches to increase the delivery of nitrogen to plants.
- Category C: Systemic approaches to facilitate delivery of nitrogen by designed interactions between plant and microbe.
- Category D: Other technologies of plant and/or microbial bio-design for coupled nitrogen fertilizer reduction and nitrous oxide emissions mitigation that do not fit within Categories A, B, and C.
Innovation Need:
The cultivation of corn and sorghum account for half of nitrogen fertilizer use in the U.S, and fertilizer production consumes approximately 16% of total natural gas in the U.S. chemical sector. Rising demand in nitrogen fertilizer application may double the current agricultural-based emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential 273 times that of carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide persists in the atmosphere for close to 120 years.
For bioenergy crops, replacing synthetic nitrogen fertilizer with biological approaches will improve the sustainability of ethanol production, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture and lowering the carbon intensity of both ethanol fuel and ethanol-derived sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). This program strategically supports President Biden’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge, launched in 2021, calling for an acceleration in SAF production to as much as 35 billion gallons by 2050.
The technologies developed through TEOSYNTE will also lower costs to farmers by reducing the use of synthetic fertilizer, a significant portion of their operating expenses. Calculations based on the Department of Agriculture’s forecast of cost-of- production showed that the application of nitrogen fertilizer to corn and sorghum accounts for 25% of input cost to the grower, representing $11.4 billion in 2022.
Potential Impact:
The biotechnological advances of TEOSYNTE will enable transformative change across agriculture.
Security:
TEOSYNTE will reduce imports of foreign synthetic nitrogen fertilizer by lowering nitrogen fertilizer used in U.S. agriculture by 27% and lower the demand for natural gas feedstock for fertilizer production.
Environment:
This program will prevent up to 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions generated during nitrogen fertilizer production, which would reduce total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 0.7-1.4%.
Economy:
The technologies developed in TEOSYNTE could save U.S. farmers as much as $6.4 billion in operational costs.