Soilgenic Technologies, LLC is focused on Climate Smart Technologies for Agriculture. Soilgenic has developed a suite of Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer (EEF) Technologies for all Nitrogen fertilizers as well as a technology to improve phosphate fertilizer availability. In April 2022, the company announced its patented enhanced DCD technology – NitroBlock Enhanced DCD – that the company says significantly improves below ground loss of nitrogen from leaching and denitrification. New AG International spoke with CEO Jeff Ivan to learn more
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Let’s begin with the corporate side, before diving into the products – what’s the focus of Soilgenic as a company? Soilgenic Technologies is a privately held company focused on Climate Smart Agriculture. In summary the ability to improve fertilizer use efficiency and to bring technologies forward that provide sustainable solutions for agriculture. A big part of what we are focused on is GHG mitigation and providing a low carbon solution for agriculture. We brought in a group who has developed over 40 patents in the EEF space and has developed several technologies that provide significant enhancements over what we call Gen 1 EEF Technologies. Not only are the Gen 2 technologies a vast improvement, but we have provided a much lower cost that will improve the user adoption in the marketplace.
Before asking what the plan is for you as CEO, could you give a brief summary of your career to date and how you became interested in sustainable agriculture? I’ve been in Agriculture for 32 years now and pretty much all of those years focused on the fertilizer sector. I started my career in the retail sector in Western Canada and then moved over to Tiger-Sul products focusing on sulphur-based fertilizers and micronutrients. After moving into managing the Canadian market, I switched focus to managing the international business development for the group. I also worked with The Sulphur Institute (TSI) as the project lead for the promotion of sulphur-based fertilizer in the India market working closely with the Fertilizer Association of India. For the past 10 years I’ve worked with Ag Growth International (AGI) and continued to focus on international development projects including in developing regions, working closely with NGOs and governments on the development of fertilizer plants to increase food security.
During this period, we saw the IPCC release the report on agriculture and the impact on climate change. Globally we have seen a push for sustainability in agriculture. Agriculture represents up to 24% off GHG emissions and is a major contributor to climate change. We have identified technologies that can make a dramatic impact to not only lower GHG emission but to improve nutrient use efficiency and crop yields.. This has brought me to Soilgenic and our focus on Climate Smart Technologies and how we can play a major role in providing new technologies for farmers transitioning to a low carbon farming system.
So, what’s the plan? What can you tell us about the EEF Technologies you are bringing to the market? Our Gen 2 EEF Technologies that we have developed is a wide portfolio of technologies that provides significant value to the market. First off, we have one of the widest ranges of EEF technologies that provides a solution for all Nitrogen and Phosphate fertilizers. All formulations are high concentration products that results in a lower application rate. Visio-N for Urea provides solutions for above ground, below ground or total protection at a price point that is half of the current industry Gen 1 technologies. We’ve also designed it for cold or hot humid climates. Diamond-N is our technology for UAN. We’ve designed a coating technology ensures the highest level of actives in the agricultural market which readily dissolve in UAN resulting iin a solution not a suspenstion. The ability of Diamond-N to dissolve into a solution allows for the addition at the retail level. The grower doesn’t have to worry about the settling out of actives that results from a suspension. Diamond-N provides a cost-effective, unique solution for protecting UAN solutions. Knifed-N is the only non-corrosive EEF formulation for anhydrous ammonia. This provides a significant benefit over other technologies in this space. In addition, we’ve lowered the cost by 50% with this technology and can also add in a soil enhancement technology to improve phosphate availability. Drive-N completes our portfolio for Nitrogen EEF technologies. Drive-N is designed for ammonia-based fertilizers such as ammonium sulphate and MAP and DAP Phosphate fertilizers. The technology allows for the coating of hard granules to penetrate and provide the protection from nitrogen loss.
Your EEF technologies provides a complete portfolio for all Nitrogen Fertilizers. What about upstream coating at Urea manufacturing facilities? Is this something Soilgenic can provide? Upstream coating of Urea is an area we are focusing on. Our patent in this space is unique and allows for the easy integration of adding our EEF technologies to Urea without having to retool the facility putting the facility offline. Our Visio-N Upstream technology allows Urea manufacturers to provide a protected Urea for their customers at the lowest industry cost. We find that upstream coating of Urea towards the end of the granulation process is most cost effective in applying a coating and results in higher quality urea. Third party research has shown that Urea hardness improves up to 20% with the addition of our Visio-N Upstream Technology. It’s the perfect solution for Urea manufacturers to enhance their Urea and provide a sustainable Nitrogen solution.
Nitrogen fertilizers are under pressure due to the loss of Nitrogen to the environment. How can Soilgenic help to improve this issue? The Nitrogen industry is under pressure to improve the fertilizer use efficiency and to reduce environmental nutrient loss. Nitrogen efficiency is poor with up to 46% of Nitrogen lost to the environment. The 4Rs (Right Source, Right Rate, Right Time, and Right Place) provide a good guideline to improve nutrient use efficiency, but a significant part of the solution is to improve our fertilizer technologies. Above ground loss is easily managed with NBPT which is shown to be up to 96% effective in reducing volatilization losses for above ground
applications. However, we also need to think about the below ground loss that can account for 70% of the Nitrogen loss. The corn image is a great visual of untreated nitrogen, above ground protection, below ground protection and a fully protected urea that have both above and below ground loss incorporated. The below ground loss contributes to a significant amount of N20 emissions that are 300X more potent than C02 emissions. Our NitroBlock™ Enhanced DCD significantly improves the below ground protection resulting in a 10X lower conversion to Nitrate nitrogen than commercial DCD. We are able to stabilize the Nitrogen in the Ammonium (NH4) form preventing the nitrogen from loss to leaching and denitrification.
Can you tell us about your phosphate EEF Technology? How does Phosgain work and what advantages does it bring to the market over other technologies? Our Phosgain™ Technology is a major enhancement technology for phosphate fertilizers. We can incorporate the Phosgain upstream at the manufacturing facility or downstream at retail distribution facilities. Our patent for our EEF technology creates a specific molecular weight for the polymer technology that allows the polymer to move with the phosphate and create a protective shield from strong cations such as Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium and Iron. The result is the phosphate remains protected and available to the plant much longer and increases the phosphate fertilizer availability and performance. Three years of trials has shown an average 17% crop yield increase with a 7-10X ROI with the Phosgain technology. The Phosgain technology will also help to free phosphate from the soil and works on all pH zones allowing for a wide spectrum of use globally.
I understand you are also looking at the broader sustainability picture with other Climate Smart Technologies. How does this fit into the Soilgenic model? What other technologies are in your R&D pipeline? Yes, we have several technologies that we are developing that also will enhance the soil microbiome and work with the plant to increase nutrient use efficiency. We think of fertilization and the soil health as a combined approach. If you improve fertilizer efficiency and the health of the soil, you are bringing the two together to work efficiently for providing the best outcome. Our technologies to enhance the soil microbiome are in development but will have a significant impact providing a low cost but highly efficient solution for improving the health of the soil. One technology is a low molecular weight Carbon technology that will work with the microbiome in the soil. The second technology is a silica
Mesoporous Nanotechnology that is a unique patent that can encapsulate molecules and other ingredients that can be used in many ways. Uses would be seed coatings, fertilizer coatings, bio stimulants, CRF fertilizers, and pesticide molecule encapsulation to reduce pesticide use by up to 80%. We have also recently received a patent on a Biodegradable Polymer technology that will replace PE CRF technologies on the market. We are quite excited about this technology as it not only will degrade naturally to fertilizer in the soil, but is also a much lower cost
of CRF technology to that available on the market today. Our R&D group continues to work on this technology and its development. Another technology that we are quite excited about falls into our Nitrogen EEF technology pipeline. The NBPT technology is typically produced in China and has been in very limited supply over the past year as EEF technologies increase globally. Our patent pending technology will allow us to produce the NBPT active ingredient more efficiently at a much lower cost than what’s provided today. The production footprint is more environmentally friendly and has a lower carbon footprint as a result. By producing the active ingredient locally, we also lower shipping costs and distribution challenges. The lower cost production technology will significantly improve the adoption by the industry and the use by farmers globally making fertilizers more efficient with a cost-effective solution. With the global fertilizer shortage and looming food supply crisis, we feel that Soilgenic is in the perfect spot to help the fertilizer industry to prevent a global
crisis. With nitrogen fertilizer loss at 46% our EEF technologies can significantly reduce that loss and allow fertilizers to be more efficient and produce more food. While we look at today’s crisis, we also need to look at 2050 when the world will have 9.6 billion people and we need to increase food production by 50-70%. Soilgenic has the solutions and technologies to address this challenge. ●
Jeff Ivan, CEO,Soilgenic Technologies
We have one of the widest ranges of EEF technologies that provides a solution for all Nitrogen and Phosphate fertilizers.
The result is the phosphate remains protected and available to the plant much longer and increases the phosphate fertilizer availability and performance.
