Developing inhibitor technologies

Rising demand for food – coupled with shrinking arable land per capita – challenges farmers to boost yields. Increasing environmental concerns arising from past indiscriminate use of fertilizers are compelling manufacturers to create high-efficiency, gradual-release products that reduce possible nutrient loss. That’s why EuroChem is developing a new generation of fertilizers. Enhanced-efficiency fertilizers (EEFs) are specially formulated to provide nutrients more slowly, which enables crops to take them up more efficiently.

"Depending on environmental conditions, stabilised mineral products such as UTEC® reduces ammonia emissions up to 80% compared to untreated urea and our ENTEC® products allow to reduce CO2 emissions up to 79% compared to untreated fertilizers."

Our ENTEC® products work by stabilizing the applied fertilizer in the ammonium form for a prolonged period. This arrests denitrification, while still providing a source of nitrogen to the crop. Independent scientific studies show that EEFs such as ENTEC® provide more nitrogen directly to crops.

We are currently working with 18 research partners and 12 universities – and conducting more than 250 field trials in 25 countries – to develop formulations that will deliver optimal results in specific soils, whatever the crop, location or climate.

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Research indicates that EEFs or ‘inhibited’ fertilizers can play a significant role in more sustainable agricultural production – and EuroChem is at the forefront of work on these products. EEFs can control nutrient release – or influence their use by converting nitrogen into different forms, which may reduce their loss to the environment – such as through ground leaching, nitrous oxide emissions or as ammonia gas.