Clean fertilizer technology attracts investment

Several start-ups developing technologies to produce nitrogen fertilizer with low carbon emissions have attracted investment in recent weeks. But some analysts say the massive scale of the fertilizer industry means these companies will likely play only a niche role on the farm. Windfall Bio raised $28 million to increase production of a bacteria that ferments methane emissions from dairies and oil wells into nitrogen-rich fertilizer. Jupiter Ionics received $6 million in private investments and a $1.6 million grant from Australia's government to continue developing an electrolyzer that converts air and water into the fertilizer ammonia. Meanwhile, the start-up Ammobia raised $4.2 million to scale up a technology that produces ammonia at lower pressures and temperatures than conventional processes. And last month, Tsubame BHB raised $35 million for a better catalyst for ammonia synthesis. Ammonia is typically produced by catalytically combining hydrogen derived from fossil fuel with nitrogen from the air