Site items in: Ammonia Synthesis

How to reduce the LCoA of green NH3 with hybrid CSP-PV plants
Paper

How to reduce the LCoA of green NH3 with hybrid CSP-PV plants

Xavier Lara November 11, 2021

The gNH3 production requires a large amount of renewable energy, where the LCoA is strongly affected by the LCoE. If it is considered only a solar solution, the low Photovoltaic (PV) technology cost can achieve competitive gH2 cost. However, the industrial NH3 plant would require power stability in a 24/7 profile, and a storage solution must be included. In this case, the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) presents an unique and promising advantage with its dispatchability to fulfill this necessity. Therefore, a hybrid CSP+PV solution can give the best cost solution power mix for the green ammonia industry.

Dynamic Analysis of Flex-gNH3 – a Green Ammonia Synthesis Process
Paper

Dynamic Analysis of Flex-gNH3 – a Green Ammonia Synthesis Process

Raffaele OstuniMichele CorbettaMichal Bialkowski November 11, 2021

The future of a decarbonised ammonia production is seen as the alignment of the intermittent production of renewable energy, energy demands and ammonia process features. The current Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis process can indeed be altered to enable green and sustainable ammonia production primarily being driven by renewable electricity. However, this will require to enhance current commercial Haber-Bosch (H-B) process flexibility with modifications to redefine the conventional H–B process with a new optimised control. The technical feasibility of green-ammonia (gNH3) process had been widely discussed and analysed focusing on its energy efficiency, the development of small-scale, distributed, modularised processes that can…

Whither Aqueous Electro-reduction of Nitrogen to Ammonia?
Paper

Whither Aqueous Electro-reduction of Nitrogen to Ammonia?

Douglas MacFarlane November 18, 2020

Electrochemical reduction of N 2 (NRR) is widely recognised as an alternative to the traditional Haber-Bosch production process for ammonia. The high-energy efficiency, low-cost variant of this process involves an aqueous electrolyte and there is now a substantial literature on this topic. However, though the challenges of NRR experiments have become better understood, the reported rates in these aqueous solution studies are often too low to be convincing that reduction of the highly unreactive N 2 molecule has actually been achieved. Unfortunately, there are many possible impurity sources that can interfere with robust measurements. In this presentation we will discuss…

Monash team publishes Ammonia Economy Roadmap
Article

Monash team publishes Ammonia Economy Roadmap

Trevor Brown May 28, 2020

Earlier this month, Doug MacFarlane and his team of researchers at Monash University published A Roadmap to the Ammonia Economy in the journal Joule. The paper charts an evolution of ammonia synthesis “through multiple generations of technology development and scale-up.”

Mechanistic Insights into Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction Reaction on Vanadium Nitride Nanoparticles
Paper

Mechanistic Insights into Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction Reaction on Vanadium Nitride Nanoparticles

Xuan YangJared NashShyam KattelJingguang G. ChenYushan YanBingjun Xu November 14, 2019

Renewable production of ammonia, a building block for most fertilizers, via the electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (ENRR) is desirable; however, a selective electrocatalyst is lacking. Here we show that vanadium nitride (VN) nanoparticles are active, selective, and stable ENRR catalysts. ENRR with 15N2 as the feed produces both 14NH3 and 15NH3, which indicates that the reaction follows a Mars–van Krevelen mechanism. Ex situ and operando characterizations indicate that VN0.7O0.45 is the active phase for ENRR and the conversion of VN0.7O0.45 to the VN phase leads to catalyst deactivation. Quantitative isotopic labeling results identify the amounts of two different types of…

Synthesis and Assessment of Process Systems for Production of Ammonia Using Nitric Oxide in Combustion Exhaust Gas
Paper

Synthesis and Assessment of Process Systems for Production of Ammonia Using Nitric Oxide in Combustion Exhaust Gas

Hideyuki MatsumotoShotaro OgawaKeisuke KobayashiTetsuya NanbaShiro YoshikawaTaku TsujimuraHirohide Furutani November 14, 2019

Recently, ammonia is regarded as an alternative fuel without carbon dioxide (CO2). Numerous studies have been performed using ammonia as a fuel. Iki and Kurata confirmed the working of a prototype for the ammonia gas turbine, where ammonia burned in an environmentally benign way to generate electricity, exhausting only water and nitrogen [1]. From the view of cycle of ammonia for the development of a society with low carbon, it is required to synthesize carbon-free ammonia (green ammonia) in small plants. This green ammonia can be synthesized using renewable energy, with hydrogen from electrolysis of water and nitrogen from pressure…

Ammonia Yields during Plasma-Assisted Catalysis Boosted By Hydrogen Sink Effect
Paper

Ammonia Yields during Plasma-Assisted Catalysis Boosted By Hydrogen Sink Effect

Maria Carreon November 14, 2019

Plasma-catalytic ammonia synthesis is known since early 1900s but the possible reaction pathways are currently under investigation. In this article, we present the use of various transition metals and gallium-rich alloys for plasma-catalytic ammonia synthesis. The best three metallic catalysts were identified to be Ni, Sn and Au with the highest ammonia yield of 34%. Furthermore, as compared to its constituent metals some alloys presented about 25-50% better yields. The metals employed were classified in two different categories according to their behavior during ammonia plasma-catalysis. Category I metals are nitrophobic and the measured concentration of Hα in the gas phase…