This Innovation Corps proposal begins to translate basic science results from NSF-funded research into commercial applications in next generation, environmentally sustainable agriculture. The technology goal is the development of nitrate sensors for field applications in large-scale industrial agriculture, to monitor and control fertilizer utilization and nitrate pollutant generation from fertilizer usage. The overall goal is to simultaneously maximize agricultural productivity, optimize fertilizer usage and minimize environmental impacts resulting from fertilizer use. The proposed I-Corps funding will provide a 6-month effort to demonstrate proof-of-concept that proprietary compounds can be incorporated into a solid matrix (e.g., polymer thin films) to provide an optical readout that is sensitive for nitrate in the presence of other common interfering anions and natural organic matter.
Preserving the environment and developing agricultural products that do not harm unintended targets were recently cited as grand challenges for the chemical sciences. This translational research will enable a team of entrepreneurs and scientists to evaluate a potential product that could reduce cost, energy usage and environmental damage in the multi-billion dollar per year agriculture business.
This NSF I-Corps project facilitated the translation of basic science results into commercial applications in next generation, environmentally sustainable agriculture. As a result of the I-Corpse award, a new startup company was launched: SupraSensor Technologies, LLC. SupraSensor Technologies has licensed core technology from the University of Oregon to develop an in situ real-time soil nitrate monitoring system based on its patented molecular sensing technology. Since the completion of the I-Corps project, SupraSensor has since been awarded an NSF SBIR Phase 1 grant and an Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute Gap Commercialization grant. The company employs its founding President, two interns, and a part-time senior engineer. The intellectual merit of the technology is the development of nitrate sensors for field applications in industrial agriculture, to monitor and control fertilizer utilization and nitrate pollutant generation from fertilizer usage. The broader impacts of this work will result in simultaneously maximizing agricultural productivity, optimizing fertilizer usage and minimizing environmental impacts resulting from fertilizer use. Nitrogen fertilizer provides essential nitrogen to plants, with ammonium nitrate serving as the major form of nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrate-containing fertilizer accounts for over 50% of all fertilizer used in the U.S.—over 12M tons annually. Approximately 30% of the nitrate-based fertilizer currently used on high-value crops is wasted through runoff from unutilized fertilizer, a figure that has nearly doubled in the last 25 years. Such poor management of expensive fertilizers is estimated to cost 6% of annual food revenue in the United States. Enabling sustainable production of food resources while managing the nitrogen cycle has been cited by the National Academy of Engineers as one of the "Grand Challenges" facing us today. SupraSensor Technologies seeks to address this grand challenge through their proprietary sensing technology.
