NSF Engineering Research Center
and in Partnership with Industry
Vision & Mission
Our Vision
The CASFER vision is to enable resilient and sustainable food production by developing next generation, modular, distributed, and efficient technology for capturing, recycling, and producing decarbonized nitrogen-based fertilizers (NBFs).
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CASFER brings together a diverse leadership and the convergence of a multidisciplinary team drawn from Texas Tech University, Florida A&M University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mission
Toward a nitrogen circular economy
Our mission is to transform the US from nitrogen cycle pollution to a circular economy by recycling waste streams, changing the way value is created.
CASFER aims to capture and recycle nitrogen from waste streams to reach more than 50% of the US NBF consumption. Instead of expending resources, energy, and money to deactivate diluted reactive nitrogen from waste streams, nitrogen from waste will be captured and recycled for crop production.
Societal Impact
CASFER strives to solve one of the most pressing problems facing humankind, how do we feed the growing world population while protecting and sustaining our environment? By 2050, the world population will exceed 10.5 billion, increasing the demand for food by 70%, with only an additional 10% land available for agriculture.
To meet this demand, nitrogen-based fertilizers (NBFs) are required for the formation of plant proteins. Currently, more than 50% of the world population is supported by synthetic NBFs, produced via the Haber-Bosch process a carbon intensive process, however, the high volatility of prices remains a challenge in the US and developing countries.
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Furthermore, only 20% of NBFs produced translate into food with 80% lost to the environment creating significant environmental, health, and socioeconomic impact. Therefore, society requires new cost effective, resilient, and secure ways to produce NBFs with minimum environmental and socioeconomic impacts.
CASFER will lead the US toward a Nitrogen Circular Economy (NCE), fertilizer independence, an affordable and resilient price range for NBF, while sustaining and preserving the environment.
CASFER Pillars
CASFER encompasses the broad integration across academic disciplines (Convergence Research) and a diverse and skills-trained workforce (Engineering Workforce Development). The center embraces diversity and a culture of inclusion at all levels, resulting in full engagement, deep collaboration with diverse stakeholders, and an ecosystem that maximizes the impact of CASFER innovations.
To Learn More
To learn more about CASFER, please download and browse the NSF CASFER fact sheet.