The announcement was made by Managing Director Mr. Pejman Djavdan on April 4th during the company’s Future Day event at Jaarbeurs Media Plaza in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Stamicarbon’s innovation ambitions are focused on three areas:

• Specialty fertilizers (including controlled release fertilizers, seed cores and (micro)nutrients)
• Renewable production of fertilizer (using wind or solar energy to produce fertilizer)
• Digitalization (optimizing plant operations by harnessing the power of real-time data)

Attended by more than 130 employees and some 40 guests from industry organizations, related companies, and innovation partners, the Future Day was organized to inspire, spark discussion and plant seeds for collaboration.

Topics addressed at the event included:

• How to feed the world’s growing population (expected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050)
• Future food sources (including insects and alternative proteins).
• Vertical farming
• Digitalization, drones, and robotics
• How to make fertilizers more enriching and sustainable

“Stamicarbon is determined to be part of the solution. We believe we can best use our 70 years of knowledge and experience to help develop smarter fertilizers and significantly improve the production of fertilizer,” Mr. Djavdan said.

Together with partners, Stamicarbon is already working on several specialty fertilizers including a biodegradable controlled release fertilizer and fertilizers with the addition of (micro)nutrients. To optimize fertilizer plants into the future, Stamicarbon is also developing a suite of digital services to harness the power of real-time data. But there is still a lot to explore and develop to make the fertilizer industry completely digital. Meanwhile, the use of renewable energy to produce fertilizer is an area where Stamicarbon is very interested to collaborate with partners and apply its expertise.

Future Day offers program to spark inspiration and discussion

Well-known futurist and trend watcher Mr. Richard van Hooijdonk kicked off the program by sharing a glimpse of the future of agriculture. He covered a variety of topics including:

• Biotech: scientists genetically modifying crops to produce greater yields
• Drones: offering advanced forms of crop monitoring
• Artificial intelligence: sensors and climate data helping to make predictions on optimal harvesting
• Vertical and urban farming: bringing food production closer to citizens, reducing transportation costs and CO2 emissions.

Mrs. Saskia van den Muijsenberg (Director of biomimicryNL) introduced Biomimicry, a term derived from the Greek words bios 'life' and mimesis 'imitate', so literally 'imitate life'. She is a Certified Biomimicry Professional with some 20 years of experience in marketing, change management, and strategic innovation. Mrs. van den Muijsenberg tries to catalyze innovation by helping companies to discover other development strategies in nature and to develop them further and translate them to real business opportunities. She gave us insights in how nature can inspire us to design sustainable technologies.

Mr. Bas Godschalk (Owner of Insects-for-all): talked about food of the future. Insects can play a key role in meeting the growing demand for sustainable protein. Production of insects requires only 40% of the energy that is needed to produce other kinds of proteins. In the West, there is a great deal of knowledge and experience of breeding insects, but so far not many people eat them. In many developing countries insects are regularly eaten but are hardly ever bred. So there are opportunities to introduce these technologies and enrich diets. During the event, participants were dared to taste several foods made using insects.

 The other speakers were Mr. Taylor Pursell (chairman of Pursell Agri-Tech), who explained the innovative Controlled Release Fertilizer technology that is already in operation in the USA, and Mr. Rob Faessen (Stamicarbon’s New Business Development Manager Digitalization), who explained Stamicarbon’s developments in digitalizing and optimizing urea plants.

"We gathered together speakers who not only gave us a glimpse of the future of fertilizer, food, and agriculture but also inspired us to think together and talk about the opportunities and challenges ahead,” Mr. Djavdan said. “So this is also a call to action to all individuals, companies, and organizations who would like to help us reach that goal of food security and sustainable agriculture." If you would like to contribute to a solution, please contact Mr. Robert Smulders, Vice President Innovation, at robert.smulders@stamicarbon.com.

Stamicarbon BV

Stamicarbon is the innovation and license company of the Maire Tecnimont Group. We are a pioneering company specialized in the fertilizer industry with a vision to help enable the world to feed itself and improve quality of life. As a global leader in fertilizer technologies, Stamicarbon has licensed more than 250 urea plants and realized more than 100 revamping and optimization projects. This leading position is based on more than 70 years of experience in licensing and is maintained by its continuous innovations in technologies, products, and materials. Stamicarbon’s headquarters is in Sittard, The Netherlands with a sales office in the USA and representative offices in Russia and China. For more information: www.stamicarbon.com.