The European project CONFETI demonstrates on-demand urea production at an agricultural installation in Viladecans, powered by solar panels and biobatteries, after three years of research.
Manufacturing fertilizer exactly where it is needed, using CO₂, nitrates, and renewable energy. The CONFETI European project, coordinated by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, has demonstrated the production of urea in a real agricultural environment through a pilot plant located in Viladecans. The system operates with solar panels and biobatteries and enables producing this fertilizer locally and on demand.
The prototype for urea production incorporates an electrochemical reactor that produces urea from CO₂ and nitrates. It also integrates another photochemical reactor that uses sunlight to transform the nitrates in water into ammonia, a fundamental compound for manufacturing fertilizers. The installation has continued to operate through the summer and after episodes of heavy rain.
Funded with almost four million euros from the European Innovation Council, CONFETI marks the culmination of three years of research to explore alternatives to conventional industrial production. The result confirms an initial on-site technical viability; the researchers will continue to evaluate its performance and costs, as well as its environmental balance, before determining its potential commercial application.
Urea production reaches the field
The CONFETI European project, coordinated by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), has managed to produce urea —one of the most widely used nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture— directly in the field using a pilot system powered by biobatteries and solar panels.
The experimental installation, located in an agricultural setting in Viladecans (Barcelona), enables obtaining this fertilizer locally and on demand from carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrates using an electrochemical reactor, according to a statement from UAB released this Tuesday.
In addition, the prototype integrates a photochemical reactor that uses sunlight to transform the nitrates present in the water into ammonia, a basic compound for the synthesis of urea.
The project, funded with nearly four million euros by the European Innovation Council (EIC) within the Horizon Europe program, thus completes three years of research aimed at seeking sustainable alternatives to conventional industrial fertilizer production, which is characterized by high energy consumption and environmental impact.
According to the coordinator of the initiative and a professor in the Chemistry Department at the UAB, Gonzalo Guirado, the main challenge has been transferring the technology from the laboratory to a real agricultural environment.
The pilot plant has remained in operation throughout the summer and, after recent episodes of heavy rains, allows evaluating its behavior under real weather conditions.
«What we want to demonstrate with CONFETI is that there is another way to produce fertilizers that uses polluting materials like CO₂ and nitrates and transforms them into value-added products using green energies,» Guirado stressed, also highlighting the advantage of producing the input right on the field without the need for storage.
Although the prototype demonstrates initial technical viability for local, on-site agricultural production based on surrounding resources, researchers will continue studies to determine the technical, environmental, and economic viability of its potential commercial application.
The importance of seeking other methods becomes clear when considering the production of ammonia, a key raw material for nitrogen fertilizers. In its roadmap published in 2021, the International Energy Agency calculated that this activity accounted for around 2% of global final energy consumption and 1.3% of CO₂ emissions from the energy system. This weight explains the interest in testing processes powered by renewables and located close to the crop: addressing the energy consumption of production and reducing the need for transportation and storage of fertilizer.
