Making fertilisers for the world, the eco-friendly and energy efficient way

The CONFETI project was launched with the ambitious goal to tackle four critical global challenges that contribute to climate change, environmental degradation and inequality between countries. The challenges in question are rising CO₂ emissions, energy demand, food scarcity and nitrogen pollution. The project is addressing them by developing a more environmentally friendly and energy saving method of producing fertilisers using no vital resources and producing zero chemical waste and carbon emissions.

From harmful to beneficial

CONFETI is working on capturing environmentally harmful CO₂ and nitrogen pollutants and converting them into valuable products, such as urea using organic matter in the soil and sunlight as an energy source. Through this approach, it will turn waste into an energy efficient resource with minimal environmental impact, promoting a circular economy model and sustainable agricultural practices around the world.

The self-sustaining system envisioned by the project will use photo and electrochemical technologies to capture CO₂ and nitrogen directly from air or flue gas. It will then convert these gases into urea in situ using sustainable energy sources, and deliver the resulting fertiliser autonomously, without the need for storage and transport.

“The project is focused on promoting environmental sustainability by revolutionising the way fertilisers are produced, in line with global goals to reduce the impact of climate change and food scarcity in resource-limited countries,” explains Gonzalo Guirado López, a professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, which is coordinating the CONFETI project.

Just about halfway into its 3-year mandate, the CONFETI team has already demonstrated the capture of CO₂ and nitrogen from air and their conversion to nitrogenated organic compounds. Considerable improvements have also been achieved in energy production through soil microbial fuel cells – a threefold reduction in the start-up time and a twofold increase in the power produced by modifying the architecture of the fuel cell and the configuration of the anode and cathode. All these individual aspects will be integrated into a single autonomous platform for in situ fertilisation.

“By 2026, CONFETI aims to transform agriculture and food production,” states Guirado.

The miniaturised in situ fertilisation system will enable low-cost and non-supervised urea production that will have a significant impact on agricultural costs, not only reducing fertiliser delivery and storage costs, but also the final cost of food. The benefits of the CONFETI (Green valorization of CO₂ and Nitrogen compounds for making fertilizers) project’s simple and cost-effective technology can be reaped not only by developed countries but also by resource-limited countries where the lack of energy sources and specialised personnel usually inhibits the implementation of new technologies.

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Source: European Commission, press release, 2025-05-05.