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Title: Modeling and Optimal Design of Absorbent Enhanced Ammonia Synthesis

Journal Article · · Processes
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/pr6070091· OSTI ID:1460897
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Synthetic ammonia produced from fossil fuels is essential for agriculture. However, the emissions-intensive nature of the Haber–Bosch process, as well as a depleting supply of these fossil fuels have motivated the production of ammonia using renewable sources of energy. Small-scale, distributed processes may better enable the use of renewables, but also result in a loss of economies of scale, so the high capital cost of the Haber–Bosch process may inhibit this paradigm shift. A process that operates at lower pressure and uses absorption rather than condensation to remove ammonia from unreacted nitrogen and hydrogen has been proposed as an alternative. In this work, a dynamic model of this absorbent-enhanced process is proposed and implemented in gPROMS ModelBuilder. This dynamic model is used to determine optimal designs of this process that minimize the 20-year net present cost at small scales of 100 kg/h to 10,000 kg/h when powered by wind energy. The capital cost of this process scales with a 0.77 capacity exponent, and at production scales below 6075 kg/h, it is less expensive than the conventional Haber–Bosch process.

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:
1460897
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1461625
Journal Information:
Processes, Journal Name: Processes Vol. 6 Journal Issue: 7; ISSN 2227-9717
Publisher:
MDPI AGCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
Switzerland
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 35 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (2)

Current and future role of Haber–Bosch ammonia in a carbon-free energy landscape journal January 2020
New Approaches in Modeling and Simulation of CO2 Absorption Reactor by Activated Potassium Carbonate Solution journal February 2019

Figures / Tables (14)

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Related Subjects

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
17 WIND ENERGY
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
ammonia synthesis
dynamic modeling
design optimization