Engineering and entrepreneurship collide for new agricultural startup

This story first appeared in Engineers Week 2026, an annual special section that showcases a variety of local engineering topics to celebrate all that engineers contribute to our world.

An Iowa State University scientist has teamed up with an Ames entrepreneur to launch a company that plans to revolutionize fertilization on farms across the state and around the world.

Santanu Bakshi is a principal scientist for Iowa State’s Bioeconomy Institute, an adjunct assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering and co-founder, inventor and scientific advisor for Reform Bio. He and his partner, Ames entrepreneur Kyle Anderson, have launched their startup which focuses on slow-release fertilizers and the positive impact they can have on farming and the environment.

“The research Santanu and the ISU Bioeconomy Institute have done matters because it sits at the intersection of farm economics and public health,” Anderson said. “When nutrients don’t stay where they’re applied, they can end up in waterways and drinking water systems. That has real downstream consequences for communities, and it’s also a signal of inefficiency on the farm. Improving nutrient use efficiency is one of the most practical ways to reduce losses that contribute to water quality challenges, while also helping growers get more out of every pound they apply. That's a huge reason why I became passionate about this research and decided to form Reform Bio to commercialize the product with Santanu.”

“These slow-release fertilizers are the future of agriculture,” Bakshi added.

He noted their benefits are four-fold: they reduce fertilizer leaching and volatilization and runoff, which can improve the water ecosystems; they have improved nutrient retention, which can increase farmers' yields; they offer nutrient synchronization, releasing nutrients when plants need it; and they offer a lower environmental impact, with reduced water run-off, and reduced carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions.

Bakshi has been researching biochar — a charcoal-like powder that is the byproduct of decomposed wood and crop residue — for the past 15 years while at Iowa State and has found it to be a useful source for this slow-release fertilizer product.

“Biochar can act as a sponge for nutrients,” he explained. “And it retains important plant nutrients and releases those nutrients whenever necessary, so the application of nutrients through this biochar has several advantages when compared with regular synthetic chemicals and chemical fertilizers used today. And most important, biochar is stable in the soil and won't wash away in the rain or leach into the groundwater.”

He noted this year’s heavy rainfall caused many farmers to reapply fertilizers on their fields, thus releasing more nitrates than usual into Iowa groundwater. Using Reform Bio’s slow-release fertilizer could minimize this impact in the future, while at the same time being more effective in supporting crops.

Reform Bio’s two-pronged approach to the challenges faced in farming is a huge component of their efforts, Anderson said.

“This work is especially important for agricultural regions because the stakes are local and massive. People deserve cleaner drinking water, healthier rural communities and fewer unintended impacts tied to nutrient loss,” he said. “At the same time, solutions have to be realistic for farmers, because they need to work within tight margins, variable weather and limited time. The promise here is a technology path that improves how nutrients are delivered and retained in the soil, so farms can be more resilient season to season while reducing risk to surrounding waterways.”

  Buy Photo

While the product differs from what’s on the market today, Bakshi said it’s vitally important that it doesn’t require farmers to change their farming practice or equipment.

Bakshi and Anderson are excited for Reform Bio to conduct their first full-scale trials this summer at Iowa State University.

“We have shown in the laboratory scale and also at the greenhouse scale growing corn plants that biochar can increase the nutrient use efficiency for corn plants,” Bakshi said.

As they continue with research and development, they also continue to seek capital partners to help launch the next state of the regenerative carbon aligned agriculture, as well as field trial partners and looking at other ways they can produce these fertilizers that can meet future market demand.

“With Reform Bio, our mission is to produce that slow release, slow acting nitrogen fertilizer and find a sustainable solution that can regenerate the planet,” Bakshi said. “Here, sustainability is the standard.”

Anderson agreed.

“That’s why this research matters: it’s science built for the real world. Innovations like this strengthen the agricultural economy,” he said.