Ammonia is one of the most important chemicals in modern society. Nearly 40-50% of the world’s food production relies on it. Without ammonia, half of the world’s population would be starving. However, current ammonia bulk production methods emit 500 Mt CO2/year, equivalent to 2% of global CO2 emissions. This is on par with the entire aviation industry and 18.5x larger than the entire yearly CO2 emission of all Nordic countries. The ammonia industry must reduce emissions by 37% by 2030 and 96% by 2050. This creates a demand for local green ammonia production.
Danish startup NitroVolt does that. The company is working towards a solution that will produce green ammonia directly at the farm, disrupting this cumbersome and long supply chain while circumventing all CO2 emissions.
Secures €3.5M funding
In a recent development, NitroVolt raises €3.5 million in seed funding. Participants in the round include female-led Swedish VC BackingMinds (which backed Uniqkey and Cemvision) the sovereign wealth fund of Denmark EIFO, and climate tech and early-stage investors EQT Foundation, Satgana, and DivisionM. The Breakthrough Energy Fellowship has provided a grant in 2023 and is now following that with an equity investment in the current round. This follows the €750K investment secured earlier this year.
Plans to scale its technology
NitroVolt plans to take its technology from the lab to the real world. The next phase of the company will be to scale its technology. It will also be used to build the first on-site container-sized demonstration unit, producing green ammonia from air, water, and clean electricity. With the capital, the company will be able to identify and forge partnerships with partners and suppliers to further support the scaling and building of these systems as the company continues to grow.
How was the idea born?
Suzanne Zamany Andersen and Mattia Saccoccio spun out their technology from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in 2023. The original research project started at the Department of Physics, DTU, where Suzanne was hired as a Ph.D. student in 2017, and together with the scientific team, was involved in the discovery of the process. Her extensive scientific experience led to various breakthroughs and patents for the process. Mattia joined the project as a Postdoc in 2019, with a focus on upscaling, and has engineered the flow system necessary for commercial application.
Develops green ammonia for farmers
NitroVolt offers a clean, green, and local ammonia production system called Nitrolyzer that gives power to individual farmers over their own nitrogen-based fertilizer needs. The only input necessary is air, water, and electricity, leading to the synthesis of sustainable ammonia directly at the point-of-use, in a container-sized system. This is done via a novel electrochemical process that is fast and responsive to intermittent energy sources, and given the input electricity is green, the whole process is sustainable. With these Nitrolyzer units, the farmers can gain resiliency to a fickle supply chain by producing their own nitrogen-based fertilizer on-demand, in an easy-to-use system.
“My ambition in life is to make a measurable and lasting positive impact, which is exactly why we started NitroVolt. The climate crisis demands action today, and by providing small modular units, we can do a fast implementation of a green solution. What gets me excited to go to work every day is the knowledge that NitroVolt has the possibility of enabling both environmental impact by abating significant CO2 emissions and societal impact by proving nitrogen-fertilizer to the most exposed and at-risk regions, thereby alleviating global hunger,” said CEO Suzanne Zamany Andersen, Ph.D. in Physics Engineering who in 2017 founded the company together with CTO Mattia Saccoccio, Ph.D. in Mechanical and Energy Engineering.
“The invention of industrial ammonia production has been vital in sustaining the world’s growing population throughout the last century. Unfortunately, current production methods take a huge toll on the climate and in EIFO we are excited to support Nitrovolt on their journey to bring ammonia production into the green era where it is needed the most – on farms all around the world,” said Lasse Truels Köhler, investment manager at green investments at EIFO.
“NitroVolt’s technology is a potential game changer for farmers and our food security. The founders, Suzanne and Mattia, have impressed us with their execution power and have recruited a great core team around them. We’re proud to continue to NitroVolt and are happy to see a stellar line up of new investors join this round,” said Jasenko Hadzic, Principal at BackingMinds.