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by ncmncm
2000 days ago
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A good use for a wind turbine far from the power grid is to power ammonia production at the base, which otherwise needs only air and water feedstocks. If erected on a farm, it provides both fertilizer and fuel for the farm, and any surplus for neighboring farms. Since the requirements for both inputs are wholly predictable, the value proposition is ironclad. A great advantage of this use is that it is extremely tolerant of intermittent supply; when wind is slack, you just leave off production; and produced ammonia is, exactly, storage, for as many barrels as you care to bother filling. There have been several recent projects demonstrating practical small-scale catalytic production of ammonia. An amazing thing about ammonia as fertilizer is that saturated aqueous solution may be injected behind a plow disc and be taken up by soil bacteria so quickly that no odor can be detected, following behind the plow. Injecting ammonia while plowing probably produces much less runoff to waterways than the much more frequently seen surface spraying. |
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