Urea Volatilization: Toward Fast and Physically Meaningful Assessment of Fertilizer Efficiency

Urea volatilization is a major pathway of nitrogen loss and is a source of ammonia emissions in large-scale agriculture. Existing evaluation methods are time-consuming, expensive equipment-dependent, and often rely on empirical correlations without physical meaning. This study introduces a fast and physically grounded approach to quantifying urea volatilization under both laboratory and field conditions. The method integrates simple gravimetric experiments with a mechanistic model that captures the coupled processes of water evaporation, enzymatic hydrolysis, and gas transfer. By estimation of effective parameters directly linked to mass transfer and reaction kinetics, it enables a consistent comparison of fertilizers with distinct mitigation strategies. Results confirm the method’s ability to distinguish barrier, inhibition, and combined effects, showing its reproducibility and physical coherence. This framework provides a practical tool for fast, meaningful evaluation of fertilizer efficiency, contributing to the development of low-emission and sustainable nitrogen management in precision agriculture.