If those in the west completely rearrange their diets it will change things dramatically. I think that would be only 4.3x as politically unpalatable as shutting down the ethanol business we have today. The National Renewable Ammonia Architecture has as an unstated design parameter the need to be politically as well as operationally executable. If we didn't take that concern into consideration we'd have to label it the National Renewable Ammonia Fantasy.

Ammonia is an inhalation hazard and I think I did talk a bit about the progression - first we'd use it to replace natgas in fixed generating scenarios, peaker plants being the obvious first target because of the very high margin during their operation. Agricultural vehicles are the next obvious target but the best solution may be ammonia driven corn production and biodiesel from corn oil; this needs to be inspected in detail. The distribution of ammonia to drive reforming stations fueling hydrogen vehicles is the safest route for consumer grade vehicles, but lets not forget the Dutch ran their school buses on ammonia during WWII without any serious incident.

I agree with the notion that we need far less ammonia for agriculture. Perhaps none. Plants fix nitrogen at a sufficient rate, and yields in organic agriculture are fine. Generally higher and less volatile than conventional according to this review article:
Badgley et. al, Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 22 (2007): 86-108.; http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12245-organic-farming-could-feed-t... http://sitemaker.umich.edu/perfectolab/files/badgley_et_al_2006.pdf

Furthermore, half of grains go to feedlot meat, which is a disaster for human and environmental health.

Another problem with ammonia is that when added to the soil it upsets the carbon to nitrogen balance. More nitrogen, especially in the highly reduced form of ammonia, leads to a loss of soil organic matter. U.S. cropland has lost almost half its organic matter over the past several decades (See the Soil Carbon Center and Kansas State) and our goal should be to put it back. Soils with less organic matter allow more surface runoff (removing topsoil and nutrients with the water), permit higher surface evaporation, and retain much less water within the soil structure.

Not sure how ammonia additions increase SOM, but perhaps by carefully managing the C:N ratio in the soil, not adding too much ammonia, and doing minimal tillage, carbon could build even with ammonia added.

Perhaps you address these issues in the proposal?

If ammonia works out as a motor fuel-meaning from a cost perspective-we will be able to keep a great many desperately needed trucks running in the event oil is not available.Ammonia is handled on a regular basis on the farm and in industry with very few accidents.You can learn how it's done safely in just a few minutes if you are safety literate in agriculture or industry.Ammonia in and of itself in the hands of a typical motorist over the course of a year would probably be 100 to 1000 times less likely to cause a serious accident than say driving 10,000 miles in two way traffic.