CF Industries, a top maker of hydrogen and nitrogen products, and POET, the largest biofuel producer, have teamed up with agriculture co-ops to test a new way to make low-carbon fertilizer. The goal is to show how using this fertilizer can reduce the carbon impact of growing corn, which in turn helps produce ethanol with less carbon for fuel.
The pilot project includes WinField United (part of Land O’Lakes), along with co-ops like NuWay-K&H, New Cooperative, and Farmer’s Cooperative. They’ll track the carbon impact of the low-carbon fertilizer made by CF Industries and delivered to corn farmers in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska. POET will use the corn grown with this fertilizer to make ethanol with less carbon.
The project has already started, with the first batch of low-carbon fertilizer distributed in the fall of 2025. POET plans to produce 5-6 million gallons of ethanol using this corn, which will have a lower carbon footprint.
CF Industries makes low-carbon ammonia by capturing and storing carbon dioxide from its production process at its plant in Donaldsonville. The plant can produce up to 1.9 million tons of this low-carbon fertilizer each year, enough to cover up to 22 million acres of corn.
Executive Statement
According to Bert Frost, executive vice president and chief commercial officer, CF Industries, fertilizers manufactured with a lower carbon intensity provide a quantifiable and certifiable method of decarbonizing bioethanol inputs. They are proud to collaborate with POET, WinField United, NuWay-K&H, New Cooperative, and Farmer’s Cooperative to demonstrate the viability of a low-carbon ethanol value chain that links low-carbon fertilizers to retailers to farmers to ethanol production.
