Converting Wind Energy to Ammonia at Lower Pressure

Malmali, Mahdi; Reese, Michael; McCormick, Alon V.; Cussler, E. L.

doi:10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b03159

Title: Converting Wind Energy to Ammonia at Lower Pressure

Journal Article · Tue Nov 07 00:00:00 EST 2017 · ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b03159· OSTI ID:1412658

^[1]; Reese, Michael ^[2];

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Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Univ. of Minnesota, Morris, MN (United States). West Central Research and Outreach Center

Renewable wind energy can be used to make ammonia. However, wind-generated ammonia costs about twice of that made from a traditional fossil-fuel driven process. To reduce the production cost, we replace the conventional ammonia condensation with a selective absorber containing metal halides, e.g. calcium chloride, operating at near synthesis temperatures. With this reaction-absorption process, ammonia can be synthesized at 20 bar from air, water, and wind-generated electricity, with rates comparable to the conventional process running at 150-300 bar. In our reaction-absorption process, the rate of ammonia synthesis is now controlled not by the chemical reaction, but largely by the pump used to recycle the unreacted gases. The results suggest an alternative route to distributed ammonia manufacture which can locally supply nitrogen fertilizer and also a method to capture stranded wind energy as a carbon-neutral liquid fuel.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

Grant/Contract Number:: AR0000804

OSTI ID:: 1412658

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1434926

Journal Information:: ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, Vol. 6, Issue 1; ISSN 2168-0485

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 35 works

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Optimisation of the Autothermal NH3 Production Process for Power-to-Ammonia Cheema, Izzat Iqbal; Krewer, Ulrike Processes, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8010038	journal	December 2019
Effect of the TiO ₂ crystal structure on the activity of TiO ₂ -supported platinum catalysts for ammonia synthesis via the NO–CO–H ₂ O reaction Kobayashi, Keisuke; Atsumi, Ryousuke; Manaka, Yuichi Catalysis Science & Technology, Vol. 9, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1039/c9cy00061e	journal	January 2019
Current and future role of Haber–Bosch ammonia in a carbon-free energy landscape Smith, Collin; Hill, Alfred K.; Torrente-Murciano, Laura Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.49538	text	January 2020

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