Together with partners, N2 Applied, will receive €1.5M for a 2-year Horizon 2020 project under the European Innovation Council. The programme, Fast Track to Innovation, is a innovation support programme promoting close-to-the market innovation activities open to industry-driven consortia. The program aims to help partners co-create and test breakthrough products that have the potential to revolutionise existing or create new markets.
– Through field trials we have shown that the N2 technology can improve global food production, and provide significantly improved yield using only livestock slurry, air and electricity. We have also proven that it can provide largescale emission reduction, says Carl Hansson, CEO in N2 Applied. Now it is time to bring the product to the market, and we know this will give important knowledge on how the technology can be further improved.
The grant will support a consortium consisting of N2 Applied, University of Antwerp and ScanArc Plasma Technologies. The aim of the FTI project is to improve the N2 technology both in terms of energy efficiency, processing capacity and operations and working together as a consortium is vital to achieving quicker and stronger results.
– Bringing a new technology to the market is complex and has interdisciplinary challenges that needs to be solved. Innovation and testing go hand in hand and this project gives us the ability to cut down on time and cost for testing and improving the technology.
The N2 solution is a ground-breaking solution for agriculture which increases yield and reduces emissions. By using only resources locally available on farm, the N2 technology makes food production more circular and local. The technology adds nitrogen from air into a liquid substrate and increases the nitrogen content. The reaction stops the loss of ammonia and reduces emissions, making it an efficient and sustainable fertiliser. N2’s scalable process enables fertiliser production to be re-distributed to the end-user, the farmer – cutting long and expensive value chains, and reducing the need for chemical fertiliser production based on fossil gas or coal. The solution also provides on-farm emission reductions of methane and ammonia, as well as odour.
The project comes in addition to the €2.5M EIC Green Deal project. The company has an international team with various expertise from agriculture, technical engineering, business development and sustainability. The company has its head office in Oslo/Asker and a test centre outside of Kongsberg in Svene (Norway), and branches in Wageningen (Netherlands) and York/Edinburgh (UK).