Danish startup NitroVolt secures €3.5M to decentralise and green ammonia production

NitroVolt, a Danish startup developing green ammonia, has secured €3.5 million in Seed funding. 

Ammonia is one of the most important chemicals in modern society. Forty to fifty per cent of the world’s food production relies on it – without ammonia, half of the world’s population would be starving. 

However, current ammonia bulk production methods emit 500 Mt CO2 / year, equivalent to 2 percent of global CO2 emissions. This is on par with the entire aviation industry and 18.5 times larger than the entire yearly CO2 emissions of all Nordic countries. 

Ammonia is also synthesised in large, centralised facilities, far away from the point-of-use, leading to additional CO2 emissions from distribution, and the whole supply chain is at the mercy of global events and political disruptions, as evidenced by the drastic price increases during the COVID pandemic and war in Ukraine. 

NitroVolt is working towards a solution that will produce green ammonia directly at the farms, thereby disrupting this cumbersome and long supply chain while circumventing all CO2 emissions. 

This is done through the company’s “Nitrolyzer” system, which will be a container-sized system that combines only air, water, and renewable electricity in an electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis process. NitroVolt’s solution removes fossil fuels from production, making its ammonia 100 per cent renewable, carbon-free, and competitive with current ammonia prices. 

According to CEO Suzanne Zamany  Andersen, Ph.D. in Physics Engineering:

“The climate crisis demands action today, and by providing small modular units,  we can do a fast implementation of a green solution. 

NitroVolt has the possibility of enabling both environmental impacts by abating significant CO2 emissions and societal impact by providing nitrogen-fertilizer to the most exposed and at-risk regions, thereby alleviating global hunger.”

Participants in the round include BackingMinds,, EIFO, EQT Foundation, Satgana, and DivisionM. The Breakthrough Energy  Fellowship has provided a grant in 2023 and is now following that with an equity investment in the current round. 

“NitroVolt’s technology is a potential game changer for farmers and our food security. The  founders, Suzanne and Mattia, have impressed us with their execution power and have recruited a  great core team around them,” says Jasenko Hadzic, Principal at BackingMinds.

With the seed round, NitroVolt plans to take its lab technology to the real world. The company's next phase will be to scale its technology and prove viability by building a demonstration unit on a farm. 

The funding will also help identify and forge partnerships with partners and suppliers further to support the scaling and building of these systems as the company continues to grow.  

Lead image: NorthVolt. Photo: uncredited.