Professor Meenesh Singh and his research group at the University of Illinois Chicago are rethinking how one of the world’s most important chemicals might be produced. Ammonia is essential to modern agriculture and food production, yet its manufacture remains heavily centralized and carbon intensive. Singh’s team is developing a small scale, renewable powered system that could allow ammonia to be produced locally using abundant materials and electricity rather than fossil fuels.
Goyal, I., Isa, H. N., Gande, V. V., Chauhan, R., & Singh, M. R. (2025). Stabilizing calcium nitride for efficient, long-term electrochemical ammonia synthesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(51). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2513960122
Globally, more than 170 million metric tons of ammonia are produced each year, mostly through the Haber Bosch process. This century old method combines nitrogen and hydrogen at high temperature and pressure, consuming large amounts of energy and accounting for up to three percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. While efficient at scale, the process ties fertilizer supply to centralized facilities, long transport chains, and fossil based hydrogen.
Professor Meenesh Singh and his research group at the University of Illinois Chicago stated,
“Every step forward is a step toward wider industrial use. We’re taking things one step at a time.”
The approach developed at UIC moves in a different direction. Instead of compressing gases at extreme conditions, the team uses calcium to mediate nitrogen reduction at room temperature. Calcium reacts with nitrogen to form calcium nitride, which can then be converted into ammonia when exposed to hydrogen. Because the reaction is driven electrochemically, it can be powered by renewable electricity and produces no direct carbon emissions.
Earlier efforts to achieve similar chemistry relied on lithium, which is effective but costly and difficult to source in large quantities. Calcium, by contrast, is abundant and inexpensive. Stabilizing calcium nitride long enough for sustained ammonia production was a major challenge, and the team’s recent work shows how that stability can be maintained in a continuous flow reactor.
At the laboratory scale, the system currently produces about one gram of ammonia per day. While modest, it represents one of the most advanced demonstrations of calcium mediated ammonia synthesis reported so far. The design is intentionally modular, allowing the reactor surface area to be increased step by step rather than requiring immediate industrial scale deployment.
This distributed production model aligns with a broader trend in sustainable chemical engineering. Similar efforts worldwide are exploring electrochemical nitrogen reduction, plasma assisted synthesis, and renewable hydrogen integration to decentralize fertilizer manufacturing. Local production could reduce emissions from transportation, improve supply reliability for farmers, and make fertilizer access more resilient in regions without large industrial infrastructure.
Singh’s group is now working with General Ammonia to scale the system toward kilogram per day output, with pilot operations planned in the Chicago area. The long term objective is to develop units that could operate on farms or in rural communities, producing fertilizer on demand using electricity from solar or wind sources. A key remaining challenge is eliminating the need for bottled hydrogen by generating it directly from water, which would further simplify deployment.
While significant engineering hurdles remain, including durability, cost, and system integration, the work demonstrates a practical alternative to centralized ammonia production. Rather than replacing Haber Bosch outright, calcium mediated electrochemical synthesis offers a complementary pathway, one designed around flexibility, local control, and lower emissions.
As pressure grows to decarbonize agriculture without compromising food security, approaches like this highlight how incremental changes in chemistry and reactor design can open new options for producing essential materials. In that sense, the work is less about reinventing ammonia itself and more about reshaping where and how it is made.
Adrian graduated with a Masters Degree (1st Class Honours) in Chemical Engineering from Chester University along with Harris. His master’s research aimed to develop a standardadised clean water oxygenation transfer procedure to test bubble diffusers that are currently used in the wastewater industry commercial market. He has also undergone placments in both US and China primarely focused within the R&D department and is an associate member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE).
