Asides TNF and on fields left organic residues agriculturally used soils must
uptake increasing amounts of N, stored in manure from an intensified industrial
livestock farming and in sewage of wastewater treatment plants (WWPTs). In
addition a vast array of landscapes and aquatic systems N containing chemicals
(nylon, polyurethanes, polyacrylonitriles, sulphonamide antibiotics, insecticides
Fig. 2 The drum caster for distributing nitrogen fertilizer, invented 1915 by Heinrich Dreyer
World demand for N fertilizer
And ammonia supply 2014-2019
(thousand tonnes)
Year Nitrogen (N) Ammonia-N
2015 112 539
153 766
2016 113 955
159 490
2017 115 498
164 724
2018 116 905
168 056
2019 118 222
171 433
Fig. 3 How the conversion of N 2 into NH 3 works and World’ N fertilizer demand (Food and
Agriculture Organisation, FAO, Summary report ISBN 978-92-5-108692-6 (http://www.fao.org/
publications)
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