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Table of Contents
Design Cycle.......................................................................................................................2
Justify the Need..................................................................................................................3
Identify and Prioritize Research......................................................................................4

Design Cycle

Justify the Need

My name is Sergio Eduardo Tovar Bentez; I study in the Instituto
Anglo Britnico, an IB school.
Between other activities, the IB
establishes that the students must create a product, which will be
presented in a technology, science or innovation fair. This year is not
the exemption. Within the process of creation, we must use the Design
Cycle as a tool for giving a theoretical background to our final
products. The Design Cycle states that we must make a profound
investigation regarding the functionality, impact and praxis of the
product.
The problem I selected is the mass production use and
consumption of nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen fertilizer was created
almost by accident by Franz Haber, a German Nazi who intended to
make bombs with nitrogen by separating N2 and finally did, creating
the first fertilizer that can be made in mass production, giving rise to
the next agricultural revolution and winning a controversial Nobel Prize
in the process. N2 has one of the strongest bonds in the world and only
very few very powerful bacteria can break it to give plants the nitrogen
they need to survive and develop, but in high temperatures and
pressures, this bond can be broken, creating a substance which can be
used in bombs and in crops.
Plants have three basic needs apart from water soil and
sunshine, those needs are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, each
are needed in low quantities, which are normally achieved when
bacteria in the soil give the plant just enough of these nutrients. When
the population grows, the needs for food grow too, and the nitrogen
given to a plant has to rise to improve the velocity and effectiveness of
the development of crops. As a result, with the growth of the
population, lots of nitrogen fertilizer are created now and given to the
plants to increase the production.
The fertilizer makes no damage per se, but because lots of it are
being poured into crops, the leftovers of the fertilizer get into the
ocean, polluting the water and killing everything in the area, because
of the over production, the soil is given no time to recover the nutrients
produced and it gets wasted. Whats more, to produce the nitrogen
fertilizer lots of fossil fuels are needed, which pollutes the air and kills
birds in the process. Nitrogen has no direct effects in human health but
it has a direct effect in the worlds ecosystems health.
In the world there is lots of hunger; only about one third of the
population have the access to a relative high quality food and although
there is in theory enough food to supply the entire world, lots of food
waste are created by that third of the population and farm animals

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which are then consumed for meat eat the crops that would feed the
rest of the population. These factors make that the production of food
has to be well developed and that the use of a cheap effective and fast
fertilizer is essential for the sustain of human civilization nowadays.

Identify and Prioritize Research

In this precise moment, lots of crops are being harvest to literally
feed the demand of food around the world. But, is the production
enough for the demand? The short answer is no, but the best answer is
always the true one, which is never that simple. The complicated
network of circumstances and reasons have make that the usage of an
otherwise harmful substance has to be used in the food that humans
consume. Before the agricultural revolution, starvation was a not
common but possible way of dying in the life of people in Europe. After
the advancement of the technique developed in the World War Two,
obesity became a more frequent cause of death than starvation.
First, the crops, which are being grown are possibly GMOs,
genetically modified organisms which resist plagues, fungi and other
threats, the fertilizers being used are based in pure ammonia, NH3
which help the plant get enough nutrients from the soil, complete
photosynthesis and grow the crops human need to survive. The use of
GMOs is not intrinsically harmful to the health of human or the
environment, but the problem in their usage is that very few very
powerful companies practically govern the creation investigation and
spread of GMOs making it not suitable for low income countries.
This fertilizer is very effective to give abundant ammonia to
plants since it is poured directly in the soil and absorbed by it. Till now,
it has worked well enough for humans to continue using it with almost
no change in the final product and in the process to make it. The
process is simple; N2 is poured in a container then, under extreme
pressure and temperatures, Hydrogen is added to the solution and
then, the double bond between Nitrogen is broken, and then it reacts
with the Hydrogen to produce ammonia. This final substance is simply
added to the soil and voil, fertilizer for plants.
Fritz Haber was given a Nobel Prize for creating a fertilizer by
accident and saving the lives of lots of humankind from hunger and
fame. Since that day, plants were given the fertilizer and the
production of crops raised in what is known as the agricultural
revolution, which let the population of human to grow exponentially.
Today, it continues to be used and teams with GMOs and irrigation

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technology to feed as much population as possible. Fertilizer do saves
the life of people by making food cheaper and more abundant for
everyone.
Nowadays, the richest people, in the production, or consumption
process, waste one third of the food produced in the world. The usage
of an organic fertilizer and the change of the Nitrogen fertilizer would
actually make that the people are more concerned with the value of
food, reducing wastes and improving the lifestyles of the entire world
through propaganda and a green fertilizer.

Analyzing Existing Products

A Daniels Cell could

be used in grand
scale using an
underground hole in
Africa to solve the
problems of lack of
energetic resources.
Using urine as an
ionic solution will
help with sanity.

A water filter with

carbon and green
leaves at the end will
help health and
ecosystems in both
urban and rural
areas.

An insecticide
made with Neem
leaves to help
avoid and kill
useless and
harmful pests
both from human

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