CAREER: Regulating the nitrogen cycle via bioelectrochemical fertilizer production and informed food consumption

Food production relies heavily on fertilizers. Most fertilizers are based on ammonia. Its production occurs at high temperature and pressure. This generates a significant amount of carbon dioxide. Some bacteria can fix nitrogen in the atmosphere. They convert it into ammonia. The natural process is slow, and the bacteria do not secrete much of the ammonia. Electrical stimulation can increase ammonia production and secretion in these bacteria. This CARRER project will use experiments and computations to understand how electrochemical stimulation works. Results will guide development of a low cost, low energy process that can be implemented on individual farms. The project involves a collaboration with the Baltimore Polytechnic High School. The process developed will be tested by high school students in their on-campus garden The roles of electrochemistry and biology in promoting nitrogen fixation must be unveiled to provide a path forward for decentralized bioelectrochemical ammonia production. The project is designed to unravel the regulatory mechanisms controlling the rate of ammonia production in nitrogen-fixing bacteria in response to exogenous electrochemical stimuli. The goal is to accelerate the development of small-scale bioelectrochemical production of nitrogen-based fertilizers directly in the field. A combination of experimental characterization and metabolic modeling will be used to correlate nitrogen fixation, electroactivity, and other key metabolic functionalities to identify how and why electrochemical stimuli facilitate biochemical ammonia synthesis. A reactor will be designed to take advantage of this process. Once the reactor is constructed it will be tested at a local high school. It will be used to generate ammonia that is used to fertilize plants in their garden. High school students will be trained to operate the equipment. They will also learn about the science and engineering behind the reactor. This project is expected to demonstrate a novel hybrid system for biomanufacturing. This could become the basis for the design of novel biomanufacturing utilizing bioelectrochemical processes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2540690 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Ruggero Rossi | Institution: Johns Hopkins University, BALTIMORE, MD | Award Amount: $608,871 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2540690 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2540690.html