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Norwegian company turns desert into farmland

Future food production will outpace the last 500 years in just 3-4 decades. A Norwegian innovation converts deserts to cultivated land, currently thriving in US and Middle East parks, and soon to be part of the UN World Food Programme.

– Nearly 2,000 football fields disappear every hour. Twelve million hectares of arable land turn into desert at a speed of 210 kilometers per hour. That corresponds to the distance between Stavanger and Kristiansand, says Tor Mæhlum Karlsen, Chief Technology Officer at Desert Control.

He explains that the top layer of soil, the one we walk and stand on, the one we grow crops in, is becoming thinner and thinner. It is disappearing from below.

– Out of sight, out of mind, says Karlsen.

But this cannot continue. The world’s population is growing, and we need more food. To produce more food, we need more water. Seventy percent of water consumption goes to agriculture, and that share is increasing, according to Desert Control.

Chief Technology Officer Tor Mæhlum Karlsen has worked at Desert Control since 2020. Photo: Jan Morten Bjørnsen

Chief Technology Officer Tor Mæhlum Karlsen has worked at Desert Control since 2020.
Photo: Jan Morten Bjørnsen

The Garage Laboratory

The solution exists. It is a liquid clay, so-called LNC (liquid natural clay), which is produced by the Norwegian company Desert Control. After a period of development and digitalization of the product and process, it is now ready for scaling the technology.

The idea for LNC was born in the mid-2000s and developed in a garage in Stavanger by Kristian P. Olesen and his son Ole Morten Olesen, who still work for the company. In 2019, the two brought in a leader from the outside and raised the first capital to build a prototype.

Since then, the company has been steadily moving toward its goal.

The special clay that Desert Control makes works by adding it to the top layer of soil, converting desert sand into arable land. It can also be added to already arable land, reducing the need for irrigation.

This has now been tested on different types of soil, under varied conditions.

– We have run a lot of pilots. This seemed too good to be true, so we needed academic validation, says Karlsen.

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The pilot projects have been successful. Both the clay mixture, the mobile units used to produce clay in the field and the distribution of the LNC over large areas have been thoroughly tested, and Desert Control is now ready to scale up the business.

To succeed in this, more than advanced laboratory work is needed, it also requires high-tech solutions.

– In parallel with all the practical things that are done, a lot is happening digitally. We collect data from various sensors in the soil, as well as from the production units that make LNC, he further explains.

The data is used to monitor the impact of the floating clay and to control the production of LNC in the local production units.

– With Siemens systems, we can process the data we collect, adds CTO Karlsen.

Scaling with technology

The recipe for the clay was developed in a laboratory in Sandnes. It is produced and sent in bags of one ton, to the areas where the clay will be added to the soil. There are mobile production units, which mix dry clay with water, before it is spread out.

This whole process has been tested over and over again. Both the camp, the production units and the distribution of clay over large areas are now at the level needed to be able to scale up. We and Desert Control are in the process of doing that.

We deliver solutions for data collection and automation to the company, which won the special award in Norway's smartest industrial company 2022.

– In order for Desert Control to become a data-driven organization, it is crucial that data and automation systems are closely integrated together. This is where we at Siemens come in, says Ståle Våga.

He is Account Manager for Desert Control at Siemens and has been involved in delivering the technology that allows Desert Control to use IT-based tools and work processes, develop its own software, and benefit from Siemens' extensive portfolio of products and software.

In the future, it will be possible to use technology to control production anywhere in the world from the office in Norway.

– With a single push of a button, you can put new equipment into operation or send updates to several production units at the same time, says Våga.

The goal is that most of the process can be controlled in this way, with only one operator out in the field. The operator does not need to have special knowledge of machines, data or programming, but must be able to operate the machine.

– The operator will bring a tablet and via a user-friendly interface receive instructions on the various steps. Then the machine will perform the tasks sent from the office in Norway, he further explains.

It's been four years since the collaboration began, and Våga thinks it's exciting and meaningful to be part of something that can potentially save the world.

– It's always nice to come here. You can tell that they have a drive, everyone believes in the project, he says, as he walks the courtyard between Desert Control's offices in the FOMO office community in Sandnes and the laboratory.

Technology Director Tor Mæhlum Karlsen (left) and Jarle Horneland (right) work closely with Ståle Våga at Siemens, to get the maximum benefit from the technology Siemens delivers to Desert Control. Photo: Jan Morten Bjørnsen

Technology Director Tor Mæhlum Karlsen (left) and Jarle Horneland (right) work closely with Ståle Våga at Siemens, to get the maximum benefit from the technology Siemens delivers to Desert Control.
Photo: Jan Morten Bjørnsen

Save the world

Inside the lab, four people are deeply concentrated. There are pipes and flasks with sand, soil and green plants all around.

– It's a long way from the garage it started in, says Karlsen, greeting Rosalia Garcia Teijeiro, head of research and development at the company.

Teijeiro shows around the lab and explains how the researchers here right now are looking at how the nutrients are absorbed in plants using LNC.

– The nutrients stay in the soil longer with LNC, and then the roots have more time to absorb it. This makes the plants stronger.

She is in the process of setting up a lab in the US as well, where much of the activity takes place. The company also has many customers and projects in the Middle East. They use LNC to keep parks, resorts and golf courses green, but soon comes the real reward for their efforts.

The product will be used in the desert in Iraq by the UN World Food Programme.

The UN organization works to fight hunger and to improve food security in the world, and there is no doubt that this is the vision of Desert Control as well; to save the world. But it must be financed, and the development takes place by selling the product to those who can afford it, and who without LNC would use even larger amounts of water.

Freshwater is a limited resource, Karlsen reminds us, adding that the earth has a certain amount of stable freshwater resources. In order for them to last, we cannot spend more than what is available.

But we do it now.

– How is that possible, you probably wonder? That's because we live on credit!

This is a huge problem which Karlsen and his colleagues want to solve.

We pump up more groundwater than is being added. We do this, among other things, to be able to feed the world's growing population.

– We need to grow more food in the next 30 to 40 years than we have done in the last 500.

Desert Control

Want to know more? Contact Ståle Våga

Tel. +47 901 30 580

E-mail: staale.vaaga@siemens.com