CF Industries and POET launch low-carbon fertilizers supply chain to cut ethanol GHG emissions

In Iowa, CF Industries and POET have launched a pilot project with major agriculture co-operatives to jointly develop a low-carbon fertilizers supply chain. The goal of the pilot is to demonstrate how the use of low carbon nitrogen fertilizer can substantially reduce the carbon intensity of corn and enable the production of low carbon ethanol for use in motor fuel and export.

The pilot includes WinField United – the crop inputs and insights business of Land O’Lakes, Inc., one of America’s leading agribusiness and food companies – along with agricultural cooperatives NuWay-K&H, New Cooperative, and Farmer’s Cooperative.

Participants will track the carbon intensity certification of the low-carbon fertilizer produced by CF Industries and sold from its distribution network through retail distribution channels and finally to corn growers across Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska. POET’s facilities will then utilize the corn produced using lower carbon intensity fertilizer in Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska for ethanol production. The consortium successfully completed the first distribution and applications of low-carbon ammonia fertilizer in the fall of 2025.

POET expects to use the corn grown with low-carbon ammonia to produce an estimated 5-6 million gallons of ethanol with lower carbon intensity.