Fertilizer researchers get bioenergy grant

CheckBiotech.com

Biofuels News
May 5, 2008
By Cookson Beecher

The goal of reducing farmers' reliance on industrially produced nitrogen fertilizer will get a boost, thanks to a bioenergy grant to a Washington State University scientist.

Michael Kahn, a fellow in WSU's Institute of Biological Chemistry and associate director of the Agricultural Research Center, has received a three-year, $510,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Biosciences Program to continue his research toward meeting that goal. Pointing out that nitrogen fertilizers are the single biggest expense many farmers incur in raising their crops, Kahn said that as the price of natural gas rises, so do fertilizer prices.

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