New Trends in Improved Nitrogen Fertilizers

The Technology Roadmapping (TRM) method is a decision-making tool that allows aligning market, product and technology within a defined time horizon through the mapping of scientific and technological trends. The present study aimed to identify possible research lines for implantation of a fertilizer development laboratory. The study focused on controlled or slow-release fertilizers, due to their improved performance in the gradual nutrient release in the soil and their lower environment damage ability than conventional fertilizers. The development of TRM was based on the mapping of the state of the art and the main technological advances reported in sources such as patent documents, patent applications and scientific articles. The construction of roadmaps allowed identifying the most important technological innovations in a short, medium and long-term timeframe. In the long-term, the trend is in the use of coating from biopolymers, mostly from chitin, starch and cellulose. In matrix case, the analysis pointed to the use of solids such as clay and zeolite, materials considered superabsorbent. In the short term, the concern about the environment indicates the search for less aggressive products, besides easy to handle and of low cost. In the mid-term, the use of biomass as support was evidenced.