For more than a century, nitric acid has been an important building block for agriculture and industry. It sits at the heart of nitrate fertiliser production and is also used in several industrial value chains, from metal treatment to chemical manufacturing. Despite its importance, the way nitric acid is produced has changed remarkably little.
Today, nitric acid is typically produced using the Ostwald process, in which ammonia is oxidised to form nitric acid. That ammonia is usually produced through the Haber-Bosch process, often using natural gas. This means that conventional nitric acid production is closely linked to fossil feedstocks, volatile energy markets and large, centralised production infrastructure.
Plasma technology offers an alternative route: local, electric nitric acid production using air, water and electricity. By producing nitric acid directly from nitrogen oxides formed in plasma, the process creates a more flexible pathway to nitrate-based fertilisers and other industrial applications.
From air to nitric acid
Plasma technology offers a different route to nitric acid production. Instead of first converting natural gas into ammonia and then ammonia into nitric acid, the process starts with air.
Air contains mainly nitrogen and oxygen, but under normal conditions these molecules are very stable. In N2 Applied’s plasma process, air is treated with electricity to create plasma. This allows nitrogen and oxygen from the air to react and form nitrogen oxide gases.
In the next step, these nitrogen oxide gases are absorbed into water, producing nitric acid directly. This creates a simplified electric pathway from air to nitric acid, without using fossil-based ammonia as an intermediate product. The significance goes beyond the chemistry. It also represents a shift from a fuel-based production model to an electricity-based production model. This opens new possibilities for more local and flexible nitrate production.
Nitric acid as a platform product
Nitric acid is not only an intermediate in fertiliser production. In many agricultural and industrial systems, it is a functional input.
For agriculture, nitric acid has two important roles. First, it is a key building block for nitrate fertilisers such as calcium nitrate, potassium nitrate, magnesium nitrate and ammonium nitrate. These products are used in fertigation systems, greenhouse horticulture and open-field agriculture.
Second, nitric acid can help manage irrigation water quality and root-zone pH. This is particularly relevant in regions with alkaline soils or irrigation water with high bicarbonate levels. Controlled acidification can lower the pH in the irrigation solution and around the roots. This supports nutrient availability and uptake, especially for elements such as phosphorus, iron, manganese and zinc, which become less available under high-pH conditions. As precision agriculture develops further, reliable access to nitric acid can become increasingly important for nutrient efficiency and crop performance.
Turning electricity into nitrate products
One of the advantages of plasma-based systems is their flexibility. Production units can be installed as modular building blocks and scaled according to local demand. They can also ramp up and down quickly, which makes them well suited to renewable electricity from wind and solar.
This means that nitric acid production can be better aligned with periods of surplus or low-cost electricity. In practice, renewable power can be converted into a valuable industrial product: nitric acid.
This flexibility is increasingly relevant as energy systems change. As more renewable electricity becomes available, industries need technologies that can use this power efficiently and create value from it.
Beyond fertiliser production
Nitric acid is also used outside agriculture. In metal treatment and surface processing, it is used for cleaning, etching and passivation of metals. In mining-related value chains, nitric acid plays an important role through the production of ammonium nitrate. It is also used as a chemical intermediate in industrial nitration processes, supporting the production of specialty chemicals, dyes, polymers and other nitrogen-containing compounds.
By electrifying nitric acid production, N2 Applied enables a more local, flexible and resilient supply chain for nitrate fertilisers and industrial nitrate applications.
This is not only a different way to produce nitric acid. It is part of a broader industrial shift where renewable electricity becomes a direct input for essential chemicals.
