Urea from Natural Gas; The Effects of Social Infrastructure and Systems on Climate Change Induced Food Insecurity 3 views

Food security depends not only on growing enough fertilizer for crops, but also on understanding the social systems that determine who benefits from that production and who remains vulnerable when climate conditions worsen. My capstone project report focuses on the technical design of a large-scale urea production plant that converts natural gas into hydrogen, ammonia, and ultimately agricultural-grade urea. The purpose of that research was to design a process that is industrially realistic, economically viable, and more efficient than conventional urea production methods. My STS research paper examines how social infrastructure and systems influence climate change-induced food insecurity in vulnerable communities. The purpose of that research was to understand why climate shocks produce far worse food outcomes in some places than in others, even when the environmental hazard itself is similar. These two projects are connected because they address different sides of the same global problem. The technical project investigates how to produce a critical agricultural input more efficiently and with lower emissions, while the STS paper investigates how the broader social and institutional context determines whether food systems remain resilient under climate stress.

BS (Bachelor of Science)

Fertilizer; Urea; Food Insecurity; Natural Gas

School of Engineering and Applied Science Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering Technical Advisor: Eric Anderson STS Advisor: Pedro Francisco Technical Team Members: Ben Dries, Maxwell Freitag, Adrian Ramirez, Noah Watkins

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2026-05-08