Solar‑Powered Biobattery System Enables On‑Site Urea Production, Concluding Three‑Year CONFETI Study

The pilot plant that can generate urea right on a farm has been activated, bringing to a close the three‑year CONFETI research programme overseen by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Urea, the planet’s most common nitrogen fertilizer, is usually produced in massive facilities and transported to fields, a practice that draws heavy energy use and creates emissions from hauling. Creating the fertilizer on‑site with the new system seeks to slash those indirect expenses and ecological footprints.

The CONFETI demonstrator pairs solar arrays with cutting‑edge biobatteries that retain green electricity for uninterrupted running. Leveraging this stored energy, an electrochemical reactor merges nitrogen from the air with carbon dioxide to produce urea, removing reliance on fossil‑fuel‑driven synthesis methods. Its modular architecture permits installation across diverse field environments.

The investigation kicked off in 2021 under UAB scientists, who teamed up with a consortium of European collaborators to fine‑tune the technology and evaluate its feasibility. Throughout the programme, the group repeatedly improved battery chemistry, solar coupling, and reaction performance, ultimately delivering the field‑ready demonstrator now active.

Stakeholders view the breakthrough as progress toward greener farming, particularly in areas where fertilizer transport costs are high. Producing urea at the point of use would let growers cut dependence on extended supply chains, diminish greenhouse‑gas emissions, and possibly reap financial benefits. The project also dovetails with wider EU goals to decarbonise the agri‑food industry.

Going forward, the consortium intends to broaden trials to several crop locations, collect operational metrics, and investigate routes to market‑scale deployment. Should the approach demonstrate economic soundness, it may herald a new era of on‑site fertilizer manufacture that underpins resilient, low‑carbon agricultural practices.