2023/08/10 by Samuel Alpert, Alpert, Samuel, Visal Veng +3
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #FOS: Physical sciences #Greenhouse Technology and Climate Control #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2308.05769
openalex publication_date 2023/08/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Fertilizer manufacturing is an energy-intensive process that is done in a select number of facilities across the world. We performed a literature review of methods that are being pursued in the emerging field of sustainable fertilizer manufacturing and analyzed the results of one such sustainably sourced fertilizer process. The results of our testing on a rooftop garden showed that the production of tomatoes was similar to the control and commercial fertilizer scenarios in that the total weight of tomatoes per plant was 16% higher, and the weight per tomato was 68% more than the control (tap water). We hope that this type of research will continue to be performed and expanded so that we can adopt a more sustainable method of fertilizer manufacturing in our pursuit of net positive environmental benefits.