A fern, a fertilizer, a feed and a fuel

07

Sep, 2014

By Kortny Rolston

Inside Jason Prapas’s backyard sit two blue kiddie pools covered in plastic, each filled with thousands of
aquatic ferns the width of a dime growing in a mixture of water and waste. Colorado State University

Prapas, a researcher at the Energy Institute at Colorado State University, checks the plants, known as
azolla, several times a week to monitor their growth and to add water and nutrients. He logs
information from his backyard experiment and compares it to data gathered by Ken Reardon, a CSU
professor and an Energy Institute colleague, whose students are raising azolla in tubs of water in a lab
on campus.

The two are trying to understand the saltiest conditions in which the aquatic fern can grow, how much
light and phosphorous it needs to flourish, and whether human or animal waste can provide required
nutrients for speedy growth.

With more research, they say, the fern could become a valuable biofertilizer and source of animal feed
in developing countries.

“Farmers could raise it to sell, to fertilize their own crops or even feed it to livestock,” Prapas said. “It’s a
very versatile plant and could be even more so if we can figure out how to grow it on a commercial scale
on marginal resources, such as non-arable land and brackish water.”

Discovering azolla

Prapas became interested in biofertilizers while working in the Arizona desert, researching and growing
algae in a greenhouse for a biofuels company.Colorado State University

He noticed that all sorts of plants were growing near a corner of the greenhouse where the algae and
water had steadily leaked onto the ground. Prapas watched the growth and became intrigued with the
idea of growing algae – or another plant – as a biofertilizer. He researched the concept in his spare time
and even approached his company about it.
“They weren’t able to focus on it,” Prapas said. “They were a biofuels company, not a biofertilizer
company.”

When Prapas moved to Colorado to get his Ph.D. at the Energy Institute, he began studying the
literature on biofertilizers. That’s when he first learned of azolla.

What is azolla?

Azolla is an aquatic fern that floats on the surface of water with long roots

hanging down. The plants grow close together so their leaves overlap and create a

canopy of sorts. (It’s often referred to as mosquito fern because it grows in such a thick mat on the
water, it chokes out mosquito larvae.) Colorado State University

That it grows in both brackish and fresh water is only one of its unique traits.

Azolla grows rapidly – it doubles its biomass every few days. It is high in protein – up to 35 percent by
mass. And it is one of the few plants that can fertilize itself – it grows in symbiosis with a photosynthetic
bacterium that takes nitrogen from the atmosphere and shares it with the fern.

Many have dubbed it a “super plant” because of its versatility – it provides a natural source of nitrogen,
which along with phosphorous, is needed by crops to grow. Its high protein content makes it a good
animal feed, and it is easy to harvest by skimming from a pond.

Challenges

Although azolla has long been used as a biofertilizer in rice paddies in China, it has been a traditional,
almost coincidental co-crop, not viewed as having commercial potential. That may change as the price of
synthetic fertilizer soars along with its energy-intensive manufacturing costs.

One limiting factor is phosphorous. Azolla can provide nitrogen to crops but it lacks enough
phosphorous to completely replace chemical fertilizers.
To Prapas, the answer may lie with animal and human waste.

“Animal and human wastes contain phosphorous. In many developing countries, much of the water is
polluted with those waste streams,” he said. “With azolla, we could clean this water and produce
fertilizer in the same step.”Colorado State University

Prapas and Reardon believe azolla could eventually replace chemical fertilizers in developing countries
like Bangladesh, where rising sea levels are overtaking land at a time when the population is growing.

Since azolla is an aquatic fern, it could be grown in those areas where the ocean is encroaching.

“While the potential of azolla as a biofertilizer has been recognized for many years, we need to conduct
research to determine which strains are best, how fast they grow and under what conditions –
information that is needed to make a business plan in these developing countries,” Reardon said.

Pursuing funding

In the meantime, the two CSU professors continue to grow azolla – Reardon and his students in a lab
and Prapas in his backyard setup that cost less than $20 to build. (He is producing enough to fertilize his
vegetable garden.)

Prapas now works for Factor(E) Ventures, a nonprofit organization that is headquartered at CSU’s
Powerhouse Energy Campus. Factor(E) often partners with CSU researchers, such as Reardon, to
innovate solutions to problems in developing countries.

Prapas and Reardon are pursuing funding to continue this research.

In addition to using azolla as a biofertilizer, they think it could be a starting material for the production
of biofuels. All while helping to clean waste water.

Not bad for a tiny fern.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02858627

Biofertilizer
Nitrogen is one of the most essential elements needed by plants for their growth and Azolla’s high
nitrogen content makes it an ideal biofertilizer.

Although nitrogen is abundant in the earth’s atmosphere, few plants are able to assimilate nitrogen
directly from the atmosphere and most plants obtain their nitrogen from complex compounds in the
soil. Fertilizes add these to the soil and may be organic (composed of organic matter) or inorganic
(made of simple, inorganic chemicals or minerals).

Inorganic nitrogen fertilizers are mostly synthesized by the Haber-Bosch Process and the high yields
achieved by modern agriculture are only possible because of the worldwide use of inorganic nitrogen
fertilizers. Almost 100 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer per year are now needed every year to
maintain this output – more than ten times the amount used in 1961.

The Haber-Bosch Process

The Haber-Bosch Process has been called the most important invention of the 20th century –
detonating the population explosion and driving the world’s population from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 7
billion in 2011 – but it is a double-edged sword.

In order to feed the world’s population we are locked into an artificial chemical process that has
numerous detrimental effects on the Earth System.

Less than half of the nitrogen provided by chemical fertilizers are utilized by plants and the
remaining nitrogen leaches into the soil and freshwater bodes where causes enormous damage to
wildlife.

Runoff into the oceans also causes marine plankton to multiply in enormous quantities resulting in
‘blooms’ and ‘red tides’, but the billions of plankton deplete the oxygen, causing mass mortality of
the plankton and other marine life. The United Nations has identified these dead zones as one of the
most significant environmental threats facing the world with some reaching more than 70,000 square
kilometer in size.

Chemical fertilizers also contributes to greenhouse gases as the unabsorbed nitrogen fertilizer
volatizes as nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas that is 200 to 300 times more effective in trapping heat
than carbon dioxide.
So in order to feed the world’s population of more than seven billion people we are locked into an
artificial chemical process that has numerous detrimental effects on the Earth System.

Is there a way out of this trap we have made for ourselves?

Biofertilizers and organic fertilizers

biofertilized soil

Biofertilizers and organic fertilizers are natural fertilizers that improve the soil in many ways that are
not provided by chemical fertilizers and they do not have their negative side effects. Organic
fertilizers are dead organic matter of animal, plant and microbial origin that provides plant nutrients.
Biofertilizers are live organisms that continue to provide nutrients while they are living. They
also provide living microorganisms to the soil, producing gums, waxes, and resins that are resistant
to decomposition, helping to help bind together soil particles as granules or aggregates.
A well-aggregated soil tills easily that is well aerated and able to produce even more organic matter.
These organic-rich healthy soils cycle nutrients biologically in a natural way so that they quickly
absorb and maintain water after rain, have less evaporation from the surface and are less likely to
erode be lost.

This would reduce the amount of runoff and flooding that is becoming a repeated feature of our
weather.
Sources of biofertilizers
Legumes, which are characterized by having seeds inside a pod or ‘legume’, are the mostly
commonly used biofertilizers, or summer ‘green manures’.
Legumes contain a symbiotic non-photosynthetic eubacterium called Rhizobium that
provides nitrogen directly from the atmosphere, but unlike Azolla, the relationship needs to be
renewed each generation.
Azolla’s cyanobacteria are directly transmitted to the next generation during the plant’s reproductive
cycle so that the two organisms have co-evolved together for millions of years, resulting in
a superorganism that is incredibly efficient.

As a result, Azolla-Anabaena can fix almost three times more atmospheric nitrogen than
legumes. Typical rates for legumes are 400 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year those for Azolla-
Anabaena are 1100 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year.

So Azolla biofertilizer can help to provide a permanent solution in many areas of the world…..

…..to help develop urban agriculture – for example in the growing megacities where millions are
crowded into slums…..
 ….. or in regions such as East Africa that have highly depleted soils resulting in repeated crop
failures and starvation.

….because Azolla’sbiofertilizer can be produced anywhere Azolla can be grown – exactly where it is
needed – providing a permanent solution.