Frontier Agriculture has invested in CCm Technologies, an environmental technology business that is developing a low carbon NPK fertiliser. CCM was established in 2011 with funding from Innovate UK to provide environmental services including wastewater, sewage and food waste treatment and recycling.
Its flagship fertiliser product CCm Growth contains nitrogen, phosphate and potash. As it is based on natural organic materials, it also contains fibre to return organic matter and carbon back to the soil.
CCm’s fertiliser project seeks to treat fibrous waste materials including crop residues like straw, potato processing waste or woodchip, as well a livestock manures and digestates. These materials are treated with recycled ammonia and biodigested anaerobically which captures carbon dioxide as part of the process, with heat produced as a co-product. The resulting digestate, which contains nitrogen, has recycled mineral P and K added before the product is pelleted into a form that can be spread on crops.
CCm claims this process emits 80% less carbon than the manufacture of conventional fertilisers. It envisages a series of local plants producing up to 10,000 tonnes of product annually, using locally available waste material feedstocks.
Frontier notes that decarbonisation is a growing priority in agriculture and says its investment in the business and its novel fertiliser product will provide farmers with a more sustainable crop nutrient input while helping to reduce Scope 3 emissions.
Frontier gains an exclusive distribution agreement across England, Scotland and Wales for all available CCm Growth product as part of the agreement. The company’s direct investment signals further opportunities for growth, new plant development and increased production.
“As the only shareholder with specialist expertise in sustainable crop production and grain marketing, we’re well-placed to add key industry insight and technical knowledge to further enrich the CCm proposition,” comments Frontier group commercial strategy director Andrew Flux who joins the CCm board.
“Being directly involved in the development of CCm’s technology going forward means we can better support all parts of the supply chain to meet reduced emissions targets and contribute to more sustainable food production systems overall.”
Pawel Kisielewski, chief executive of CCm Technologies adds: “This collaboration brings an alignment of interest with the UK’s leading provider of crop production advice and grain marketing solutions and will further speed the expansion of our production plans. The expertise of Frontier Agriculture’s specialists will greatly enhance our engagement with farmers supplying CCm’s key customers, in particular its ‘Global Preferred Partner’, PepsiCo.”
Frontier has worked with CCm Technologies over the last three years to trial CCm Growth through its 3D Thinking research programme at its Haywold and Bleasby demonstration sites.
“There’s nothing like this product on the market today, which is why we were excited to see how it performed in comparison to standard nitrogen and NPK fertilisers,” explains Frontier national crop nutrition technical manager Edward Downing.
“2023 wasn’t quite as good as 2022, but much of that was potentially down to environmental factors during a challenging season. Despite that, the results were still really pleasing. It was great to see it perform on par with typical fertiliser, both in terms of yield and protein.”
Mr Downing envisages CCm Growth being used in combination with standard fertiliser products to offset their carbon emissions. “Analysis carried out by The Carbon Trust showed that the carbon footprint of the product is not only low – it is negative. It’s literally taking carbon out of the atmosphere and adding it to the soil. It could be a real game changer, a step towards not only decarbonising fertiliser but also food production.”
This year will see Frontier expand its CCm Growth research to seven replicated trials plus a further 16 on-farm comparisons. “This work directly with growers will test the spread and accuracy of the product, as well as the logistics of handling it and storing it on farm,” says Mr Downing. “There’s a real focus on the practicalities – for example, can it be applied using the farm’s existing fertiliser spreader? Growers rightly need to understand what else might be required and how it shapes up against what they are using already. Though the product isn’t commercially available while this work continues, pricewise it should be comparable to typical fertiliser products on the market.”
• CCm is involved in a Tesco research programme to explore the role of low carbon fertilisers in reducing the carbon footprint of the multiple retailer’s vegetable supply chain.