Innovation Station: Is Green Ammonia an Answer to Carbon Reductions?

Pioneers of Sustainability:

Tom Norman, a passionate 5^th generation farmer from Illabo, is making significant strides in the agricultural industry, continuing the innovative and sustainable approaches that have been a hallmark of his family farm for over 30 years.

Settling in the Illabo district in 1909, Tom’s family runs a mixed merino and cropping enterprise. For over three decades, the farm has been using grey anhydrous ammonia since Tom’s grandfather, Ray, gained an interest in it after seeing it in Queensland and then America, becoming a leader in bringing it to the Riverina. Since this introduction from Ray, the Norman family have continually refined their application of ammonia to better suit their operations.

Tom grew up in Sydney and in 2020, post-graduation, moved out to the family farm in Illabo, eager to continue the innovative farming practices his family has established. Norman Industries Ag also founded Clean Green Ag, which in partnership with FarmLink, launched the ‘Decarbonised Ammonia Trial’ at the Temora Agricultural Innovation Centre.

Fertilisers like urea are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on farms due to their reliance on fossil fuels for production. Green ammonia, produced using renewable energy sources, offers a much more sustainable alternative with a lower GHG footprint. Although green ammonia is not yet commercially available in Australia, the Norman family’s trial uses grey ammonia, which is chemically identical to green ammonia but produced using natural gas and conventional electricity as a temporary measure until green ammonia becomes accessible.

Decarbonised Ammonia Trial:

After the 2030 carbon targets were released, Tom’s father, Murray, saw the need for farmers to start preparing now and the trial testing green ammonia was set up. The trial commenced last year with two large paddocks of wheat and canola, applying a range of differing ammonia and urea rates which will be replicated over the coming years.

The 2023 results were impressive and showed that yields were responsive to the rate of application but not the type of nitrogen (ammonia vs urea). The minimal difference between early season-applied ammonia yields and mid-season-applied urea yields proves that application of ammonia at sowing is a viable option for farmers to reduce GHG emissions.

Tom emphasised that the trial aims to prove ammonia’s equivalence to urea and to show the benefit of removing the human error that comes with applying urea. Tom added, “There’s so much you’ve got to get right with urea timing, and it’s always a rush. By frontloading up to 80% of nitrogen early, we’ve eliminated most of that stress.”

The trial is continually testing different rates to find the maximum level of ammonia that can be applied before counteracting into yield loss. This year, Tom was stoked to be part of the trials sowing team, using the John Deere operating system to apply up to 160kg nitrogen (195kg ammonia) per hectare which is equivalent to almost 350kg of urea.

One of the main challenges identified from the trial this year was issues with germination in dry soil which the team learnt from and they continue to innovate and adjust equipment.

The Norman’s pull a Bourgault 8450 air cart and 3335QDA air-seeder with a John Deere 9570R, supplied by us. The machine is connected to GreenStar RTK and Operations Center, which with the help of TECSight and our Precision Ag team, was used to create the plans for the trial.

“Having Ops Center is great because I can see everything that is happening at the trial from my phone at any time and the Precision Ag team are always able to help!”, he added.