Minnesota’s second green ammonia plant could fuel a future of domestic production

MORRIS, Minn. — Anhydrous ammonia, which is used in the agriculture industry in Minnesota as a nitrogen fertilizer, typically finds its end use here.

While the United States is the top importer of the fertilizer to be placed on fields for growing crops, countries like Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, Saudi Arabia and Canada are the world’s top exporters, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Production of ammonia is typically done where there is an abundance of natural gas supplies.

But the idea of producing green ammonia does not involve natural gas; rather, it creates ammonia out of air and water, using renewable energy such as wind or solar. And it’s soon to be produced more than ever at the University of Minnesota in Morris, where a smaller pilot project has been decomm