Meet the Ethiopian entrepreneur who is reinventing ammonia production

IWNETIM ABAATE is one of the 2025 innovators of with Technology Review under the age of 35. Fulfill the rest of this year's award winners. "I am the only one who wears glasses and has eye problems in the family," says Iwnetim Abate with a smile when sunrise flows through the windows of his with office as a sunrise. "I think it is up to the candles." In the small town in Ethiopia in which he grew up, the family of Abate had electricity, but it was unreliable. For a few days a week, if they were without power, Abate would do his homework through candlelight. Today is Abate, 32, assistant professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Part of his research focuses on sodium-ion batteries that could be cheaper than that on lithium base that typically supply electric vehicles and network installations with electricity. It also pursues a new research path and examines how it can use the heat and pressure below the surface of the earth to use ammonia, a chemical that is used in fertilizer and as a green fuel. When I would grow up without the ubiquitous access to electricity that many people take for granted, the way in which Abate thinks about energy problems has shaped, he says. He remembers that he hurried to dry his school uniform over a fire before going in the morning. One of his tasks was to prepare cowing as a fuel - the key is to place strategic holes to ensure proper drying, he says. Abate's desire to devote his attention to energy crystallized in a high school chemistry class on fuel cells. "It was like magic," he says, it is possible to convert water into energy. "Sometimes science is magic, isn't it?" In the national examination in the year he took it, Abate achieved the highest student in Ethiopia and knew that he wanted to go to the USA to promote his training. But in fact it was a challenge to get there. Abate applied for three years at US universities before admission to the Concordia College Moorhead, a small college for free arts, was granted with a partial scholarship. In order to collect the remaining money, he turned to various companies and wealthy people throughout Ethiopia. He received countless rejections, but did not allow him to be left in phase. He laughs and remembers how the guards would chase him off when he personally fell through the houses of Prospects. Finally, a friend of the family agreed to help. When Abate finally made Minnesota College, he went into a room in his dormitory and the lights were automatically switched on. "I was both happy to have all this privilege and I felt guilty at the same time," he says. Labor Notes, his college was not a research institute, so quickly went to Abate to get to a laboratory. He turned to Sossina Haile, then at the California Institute of Technology to ask about a summer research position. Haile, now at Northwestern University, remembers that Abate was particularly eager. As a visible Ethiopian scientist, she receives many e -mail inquiries, but his stabbed. "No obstacle would stand in his way," she says. It was risky to take over a young student without research experience that was only in the United States for a year, but she offered him a place in her laboratory. Abate spent the summer to work on materials for use in fixed Oxide fuel cells. He returned for the following summer and then held a number of positions in Energy Materials Research, including the IBM and Los Alamos National Lab, before completing his degree in Stanford and postdocteur at the University of California in Berkeley. Meet the rest of this year's innovators under the age of 35. In 2023 he joined the Faculty and started building his own research group. Today there are two main focus of his laboratory. One is sodium-ion batteries that are a popular alternative to the lithium-based cells used in electric vehicles and grid stores. Sodium ion batteries do not require the types of critical mineral lithium-ion batteries, which can be both expensive and bound by geopolitics. An important stumbling block for sodium-ion batteries is your energy density. It is possible to improve the energy density by operating at higher voltages. Some of the materials used tend to be quickly reduce at high tensions. This limits the overall density of the battery. Therefore, it is a problem for applications such as electric vehicles in which a low energy density would restrict the range. The Abate team develops materials that extend the lifespan of sodium-ion batteries and at the same time avoid the need for nickel, which is considered a critical mineral in the USA. The team examined additive and tested material engineering techniques to help the batteries compete with lithium-ion cells. Iron in the fire Another vein of Abate's work is in a way a deviation from its history in batteries and fuel cells. In January, his team published a research in which a process was described to make ammonia underground underground, whereby the natural warmth and pressure are promoting the necessary chemical reactions. Today, the production of ammonia generates between 1% and 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It is primarily used to fertilize plants, but is also regarded as fuel for sectors such as long -distance shipping. Abate was with a company called Addis Energy to commercialize research together with the series entrepreneur Equary-Ming Chiang and two experts in the oil industry. (Addis means in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia.) For an upcoming pilot, the company wants to build an underground reactor that can produce ammonia. If he is not tied up in research or restart, Abate is conducting programs for African students. In 2017, he was a member of an organization called Sciforro, which operates and plans to expand summer school programs in Ethiopia to other countries, including Rwanda. The programs focus on the provision of mentoring and clarifying students about energy and medical devices that represent the specialty of its co-founder. While Abate holds a position on one of the most renowned universities in the world and acts as a Chief Science Officer of a tedious startup, he is quickly recognized around him. "It takes a village to build something, and it's not just me," he says. Abate often thinks of his friends, family and former neighbors in Ethiopia while working on new energy solutions. "Of course, science is beautiful and we want to influence," he says. "It is important to be good in what you do, but ultimately it's about people."