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Title: Development of alkali-promoted ruthenium as a novel catalyst for ammonia synthesis

Journal Article · · Acc. Chem. Res.; (United States)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/ar00061a003· OSTI ID:6510988

It has been demonstrated that ruthenium is remarkably promoted by addition of alkali (metallic or oxide) for the activation of dinitrogen, although it has the drawback of suffering from inhibition by hydrogen. The high activity thus attained makes it possible to reduce the reaction temperature so that the total pressure may be lowered to attain a desired conversion. Thus there is a possibility to get out of the energy-consuming compression process. This would be an advantage of a ruthenium catalyst to be considered in the near future in connection with energy prices. Another advantage of ruthenium is that it gives rise to less susceptibility to poisons such as H/sub 2/O and CO than iron, when promoted with basic oxides instead of metallic alkali. In fact, it has been demonstrated that ammonia synthesis can be carried out in the presence of water and carbon monoxide on ruthenium catalysts. Thus the direct synthesis of ammonia from dinitrogen, carbon monoxide, and water is possible on ruthenium.

Research Organization:
Tokyo Inst. of Tech., Japan
OSTI ID:
6510988
Journal Information:
Acc. Chem. Res.; (United States), Vol. 14:1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English