NORWEGIAN company N2 Applied has raised a further £7 million to speed up commercial availability of a technology that converts livestock manure into sustainable fertiliser while trapping greenhouse gases.

The patented technology enables farmers to cut emissions and produce their own fertiliser locally, using only liquid organic waste, such as livestock slurry or digestate, air and electricity. This cuts long and expensive value chains, and reduces the need for chemical fertiliser production based on fossil gas or coal.

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N2 Applied has run multiple trials and pilot projects across nine countries, and claims to have proven elimination of emissions and improved grassland yields, as well as the ability to suppress odours from ammonia leakage.

The business is now moving to offer both further trials and full international commercial availability of its technology.

CEO Carl Hansson said: “Technology that practically eliminates methane and ammonia emissions has profound implications for the dairy food sector and farms of many sizes. Having proven the scientific capabilities of the N2 units across multiple trials and environments, this latest investment enables us to accelerate the commercial rollout to a dairy sector that has set ambitious net-zero goals on emissions, for which methane is an enormous factor.

“As the dairy industry moves to counter its environmental impact, it is seeking out practical innovation that can tackle the biggest problems while introducing new farming practices. Combined, this supports an approach to sustainable food production that can enable more people to be fed with far-reduced impact on our world,” he said.

Speaking from one of the new investors, NorgesGruppen, director of sustainability Signe Bunkholt Saeter said: “We see great potential in this technology as a practical and innovative solution to help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in the dairy industry. We believe that moving to this commercial phase will be important to start realising the promise of N2 Applied after encouraging trials and pilot projects.”