ABOUT SYNANTHRA

How we fix fertilizers without fossil fuels

A bioelectrochemical platform that replaces the two-step incumbent process with one biological step. Air, water, and green electricity in, green fertilizers out.

THE PROBLEM

Nitrogen feeds the world, but the way we fix it is broken

The Haber-Bosch process has fed billions of people for over a century. But it is entirely dependent on fossil fuels, and the cracks in this system are widening.

A climate liability

Ammonia production is one of the largest industrial CO2 emitters, responsible for 2.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. For every ton produced today, 2.9 tons of CO2 are released, powered almost entirely by natural gas.

A financial burden on farmers

When gas markets are disrupted, fertilizer prices follow. Prices surged roughly 50% in early 2022 after a sharp reduction in available natural gas, and EU ammonia production dropped 70%.

Policy pressure is mounting

The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism adds cost to carbon-intensive imports, while the Farm to Fork strategy targets reductions in nutrient losses. Regulation is tightening from both sides.

Environmental damage

Synthetic fertilizers leach into waterways, causing algal blooms, dead zones, and contamination of drinking water. Biostimulants and locally produced fertilizers dramatically reduce this runoff.

OUR SCIENCE

Biology replaces the Haber-Bosch process

Ammonia is the essential building block of virtually all nitrogen fertilizers. The conventional way to decarbonise it still takes two steps: green electricity to make hydrogen via electrolysis, then hydrogen to ammonia via the same Haber-Bosch process. Two capital lines, extreme temperatures and pressures.

Synanthra takes a fundamentally different approach. A genetically engineered microorganism fixes nitrogen bioelectrochemically in a single step, at room temperature, using only green electricity. One system. No hydrogen. No Haber-Bosch. Same output.

Nitrogenase protein structures from Synanthra's Nature Chemical Biology publication
THE ECONOMICS

A scissors effect in our favour

Their costs are rising

Conventional production is tied to volatile natural gas prices and exposed to geopolitical disruption. Carbon pricing adds direct cost to every ton of imported nitrogen. The incumbent economics move in one direction: up.

Our costs are falling

Our platform runs on green electricity, falling in cost year on year. We fix nitrogen from air at room temperature with no fossil inputs. Our modelling shows green fertilizer at a fraction of conventional cost. The longer you wait, the wider the gap.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Producing green fertilizers in a circular economy

Synanthra's model turns agricultural and industrial co-products into valuable outputs: biostimulants and green nitrate fertilizers. Nutrients go back to the growers who need them, closing the loop.

For the climate

Eliminating fossil fuels from nitrogen fixation removes one of the largest sources of industrial CO2 emissions. Zero-emission production, powered by green electricity, at any scale.

For food security

Decentralised, on-farm production removes the vulnerability of depending on global gas markets and long supply chains. Nutrients are produced where they are consumed.

For energy independence

At industrial scale, ammonia from green electricity becomes both a fertilizer feedstock and an energy carrier, letting countries store renewable energy without importing fossil fuels.

OUR STORY

From laboratory to impact

Synanthra was founded in October 2024 in Evry-Courcouronnes, France, part of the Genopole ecosystem (Shaker, Gene.io, UpScale Bio), with a clear conviction: the way we fix nitrogen must change.

In fewer than 18 months, the company has secured Bpifrance Deep Tech accreditation, won three pitch competitions across deep tech, agriculture, and clean energy, and joined the Blue Fellowship by daphni and WILCO One CleanTech & Energy.

Today, Synanthra operates from Sorbonne Université, Paris, building the platform that will replace fossil fuels in fertilizer production.

The question is not whether nitrogen fixation will change. It is who will change it.

We are looking for investors, partners, and talent who want to be part of the answer.

Get in Touch Meet the Team