California startup Nitricity has developed a revolutionary natural fertilizer, and the company has received $50 million in Series B funding that will allow it to scale up operations and even take them overseas, according to WV News.
Unlike most fertilizers, Ash Tea is primarily composed of almond shell waste; it doesn't contain any chemicals or animal products, and it's pathogen-free.
Conventional fertilizers are made using the energy-intensive, century-old Haber-Bosch process, which synthesizes ammonia out of fresh air, largely relying on dirty energy sources. Fertilizer production accounts for about 5% of planet-overheating pollution annually. On top of that, the overapplication of these fertilizers results in nitrogen-laden runoff that can pollute waterways.
Nitricity is also competing with natural fertilizers derived from slaughterhouse byproducts or manure, which Nitricity co-founder and CEO Nicolas Pinkowski says can come with food safety risks.
Ash Tea, on the other hand, contains only combusted almond shells, air, and water, and it's made using clean energy. Per Nitricity, pollution in this process is 92% lower than that of most traditional methods.
The combusted almond shells are brewed in water to create Ash Tea, which is sent to farmers. They dilute it and apply it to soil. It uses nitrogen more efficiently than other fertilizers, so farmers can save money by using less of it. On top of that, field trials showed a yield increase of up to 30%.
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Pinkowski co-founded Nitricity in 2018 with two other Stanford University grad students — President and CTO Joshua McEnaney and CSO Jay Schwalbe.
"We started out as grad students with a $5,000 CalTech grant and a plan," Pinkowski said on the company's website. "Now, we have more customers than we can supply, so it's about scaling to cater to that demand."
Several investors took part in the latest round of funding, including World Fund, which is a leading climate tech venture capital firm in Europe, where Nitricity plans to start pilot and field trials. There, the team will look to use local agricultural waste such as wood and waste from olive oil manufacturing facilities to produce fertilizer.
Nitricity broke ground on a new facility to scale up production of Ash Tea in Delhi, California, on Sept. 12. The facility is slated to begin operations in 2026 and is expected to produce 8,000 tons of Ash Tea each year.
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Given that the company has already sold out of its product through 2028, it's a good thing it's building in the Golden State. California is the world's top grower of almonds, generating an estimated 850,000 tons of almond waste per year.
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