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Title: Modeling and Optimal Design of Absorbent Enhanced Ammonia Synthesis

Abstract

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.

Authors:
; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
OSTI Identifier:
1460897
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1461625
Grant/Contract Number:  
AR0000804
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Processes
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Processes Journal Volume: 6 Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 2227-9717
Publisher:
MDPI AG
Country of Publication:
Switzerland
Language:
English
Subject:
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS; 17 WIND ENERGY; 32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; 77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; ammonia synthesis; dynamic modeling; design optimization

Citation Formats

Palys, Matthew, McCormick, Alon, Cussler, E., and Daoutidis, Prodromos. Modeling and Optimal Design of Absorbent Enhanced Ammonia Synthesis. Switzerland: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.3390/pr6070091.
Palys, Matthew, McCormick, Alon, Cussler, E., & Daoutidis, Prodromos. Modeling and Optimal Design of Absorbent Enhanced Ammonia Synthesis. Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr6070091
Palys, Matthew, McCormick, Alon, Cussler, E., and Daoutidis, Prodromos. Wed . "Modeling and Optimal Design of Absorbent Enhanced Ammonia Synthesis". Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr6070091.
@article{osti_1460897,
title = {Modeling and Optimal Design of Absorbent Enhanced Ammonia Synthesis},
author = {Palys, Matthew and McCormick, Alon and Cussler, E. and Daoutidis, Prodromos},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.3390/pr6070091},
journal = {Processes},
number = 7,
volume = 6,
place = {Switzerland},
year = {Wed Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Wed Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.3390/pr6070091

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 35 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Absorbent-enhanced ammonia synthesis process flow diagram.

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Current and future role of Haber–Bosch ammonia in a carbon-free energy landscape
journal, January 2020

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  • Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 13, Issue 2
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New Approaches in Modeling and Simulation of CO2 Absorption Reactor by Activated Potassium Carbonate Solution
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