Category Archives: Conference Paper

Ammonia-Hydrogen Power for Combustion Engines

Posted on December 7, 2018 by | Leave a comment

Agustin Valera-Medina*, Phil Bowen, Daniel Pugh, Cardiff University, UK

15th Annual NH3 Fuel Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, October 31, 2018
NH3 Energy+ Topical Conference at the AIChE Annual Meeting

ABSTRACT

Ammonia blends can potentially become a breakthrough chemical for power generation, cooling storage and distribution of energy. Gas turbines and internal combustion engines are potential candidates for the use of the resource in an efficient way that will enable commissioning of combined cycles to power communities around Europe and around the world while serving as sources of heat and chemical storage. Therefore, development of these systems will bring to the market a safer, zero carbon fuel that can be used for multiple purposes, thus decentralizing power generation and increasing sustainability in the communities of the future whilst positioning the developing and manufacturing companies as global leaders of a new generation of energy devices.

This work summarises results from various analytical, numerical and experimental campaigns carried out at Cardiff University, Wales, UK. Each of these is related to combustion of ammonia blended with hydrogen at different concentrations and conditions. Continue reading →

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Cost Evaluation Study on CO2-Free Ammonia and Coal Co-Fired Power Generation Integrated with Cost of CCS

Posted on December 7, 2018 by | Leave a comment

Kazutaka Hiraoka*, Yasushi Fujimura, Yoshiyuki Watanabe, Mototaka Kai, JGC Corporation, Japan; Ko Sakata, Yuki Ishimoto, Yuji Mizuno, The Institute of Applied Energy, Tokyo, Japan

15th Annual NH3 Fuel Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, October 31, 2018
NH3 Energy+ Topical Conference at the AIChE Annual Meeting

ABSTRACT

This study presents a cost estimation for electricity generated by CO2-free ammonia and coal co-firing. Regulation of CO2 emissions seems to be gaining pace due to the global warming issue so the introduction of CO2-free energy in power generation has become desirable. Ammonia is one of the potential energy carriers for power generation and development of ammonia combustion technology with low NOx emissions has been conducted in Japan. In order to investigate the feasibility of the introduction of CO2-free ammonia in Japan from both the technical and economic viewpoints, we estimated the ammonia supply chain cost from ammonia production integrated with CCS in the UAE and applied this to ammonia distribution for an ammonia-coal co-fired thermal power plant. Continue reading →

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Power-to-Ammonia-to-Power (P2A2P) for Local Electricity Storage in 2025

Posted on December 3, 2018 by | 1 comment

Kevin Rouwenhorst*, Louis van der Ham, Guido Mul, Sascha Kersten, University of Twente, Netherlands

15th Annual NH3 Fuel Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, October 31, 2018
NH3 Energy+ Topical Conference at the AIChE Annual Meeting

ABSTRACT

A carbon-free, circular economy is required to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. A commonly named alternative to the carbon-based economy is the hydrogen economy. However, storing and transporting hydrogen is difficult. Therefore, the ammonia economy is proposed. Ammonia (NH3) is a carbon-free hydrogen carrier, which can mediate the hydrogen economy. Especially for long-term storage (above 1 day), ammonia is more economically stored than hydrogen.

Transportation costs are greatly reduced by adopting a decentralized energy economy. Furthermore, political-economic factors influence energy prices less in a decentralized energy economy. With small-scale ammonia production gaining momentum, business models for the decentralized ammonia economy are currently under development.

Within the current research, current technological advances are reviewed, as well as their feasibility for long-term, industrial application. A process flow diagram was developed, based on the conceptual process design method by Douglas. An example case of 3.06*107 kWh y-1 electricity requirement is used. The solution constitutes of wind and solar power, combined with a battery for short-term storage (up to 1 day) and a Power-to-Ammonia-to-Power process for long-term storage (above 1 day). Continue reading →

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The Battolyser as a tool to overcome production problems by the intermittancy of green energy

Posted on December 3, 2018 by | 1 comment

Hans Vrijenhoef*, Proton Ventures, Netherlands; Fokko Mulder, TU Delft, Netherlands

15th Annual NH3 Fuel Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, October 31, 2018
NH3 Energy+ Topical Conference at the AIChE Annual Meeting

ABSTRACT

The intermittency of sustainable energy sources calls for either flexible production or storage of energy, to keep continuous processes running continuously. The newly developed Battolyser technology has the possibility of both, creating flexible production and storage in one piece of equipment. The Battolyser is therefore a tool to keep production processes of hydrogen and / or ammonia under a continuous mode at lowest CAPEX.

The design of this Battolyser can be such that the vulnerable ammonia Haber Bosch synthesis process can be kept in operation during certain periods of outage of (green) power, without installing additional large batteries.

The Battolyser will be in operation as of Spring 2019 in The Netherlands. Continue reading →

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Solid Oxide Cell Enabled Ammonia Synthesis and Ammonia Based Power Production

Posted on October 1, 2017 by | 4 comments

John B. Hansen
Haldor Topsøe, Denmark

NH3 Fuel Conference, Minneapolis, November 2, 2017
AIChE Annual Meeting, Topical Conference: NH3 Energy+

ABSTRACT

Haldor Topsøe’s leading role as supplier of ammonia synthesis catalysts and technology is well known. The company has, however, also been active for decades in developing Solid Oxide Cell based stacks and systems.

The presentation will describe a novel, highly integrated process for ammonia synthesis based on Solid Oxide Electrolysis. The energy efficiency is very high due to ability of the SOEC to use steam generated from the synthesis reaction heat in the ammonia synthesis loop and the favorable thermodynamics of high temperature electrolysis. Continue reading →

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Screening Binary Redox Pairs for Solar Thermochemical Ammonia Synthesis Using Machine Learned Predictions of Gibbs Formation Energies at Finite Temperatures

Posted on October 1, 2017 by | 1 comment

Christopher J. Bartel*1, John R. Rumptz1, Aaron M. Holder1,2, Alan W. Weimer1, Charles B. Musgrave1
[1] University of Colorado Boulder; and [2] National Renewable Energy Laboratory, United States

NH3 Fuel Conference, Minneapolis, November 2, 2017
AIChE Annual Meeting, Topical Conference: NH3 Energy+

ABSTRACT

Solar thermochemical ammonia synthesis (STAS) is a reduction/oxidation (redox) cycle which enables the production of ammonia (NH3) from air, water, and concentrated sunlight. In this process, a metal nitride (MN) is oxidized by steam to produce a metal oxide (MO) and NH3; the resulting MO is reduced at high temperature (driven by concentrated solar radiation) and subsequently used to reduce atmospheric nitrogen (N2) and reform the MN and restart the NH3 synthesis cycle. The identification of optimal redox pairs (MO/MN) for this process has been historically limited by the lack of thermochemical data (i.e., Gibbs formation energies at finite temperatures) available for these materials, especially nitrides.

Prior work by our group has demonstrated the use of machine learning to enable the prediction of Gibbs formation energies up to very high temperatures (1800 K) using low-cost DFT calculations (e.g., PBE+U), thus eliminating the need for experimentally measured thermochemistry. Utilizing this approach, we’ve screened the reaction energetics and thermodynamic stability of all known binary (i.e., monometallic) MN/MO pairs, increasing the number of redox pairs considered for this process by an order of magnitude. In addition to the consideration of new redox pairs, we also assess the effects of operating conditions and reaction scheme on the viability of candidate materials. Within this work, we gain insights into new candidate materials for NH3 synthesis, the effects of operating conditions on the viability of the overall process, and the correlated stability of metal oxides and metal nitrides. Continue reading →

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Process Synthesis and Global Optimization of Novel Ammonia Production Processes

Posted on October 1, 2017 by | 1 comment

Doga Demirhan*, William Tso, Efstratios Pistikopoulos
Texas A&M University, United States

NH3 Fuel Conference, Minneapolis, November 2, 2017
AIChE Annual Meeting, Topical Conference: NH3 Energy+

ABSTRACT

Synthetic ammonia production has played a huge role in sustaining population growth by providing the nitrogen in fertilizers that are widely used in modern agriculture. Even long after it was first commercially developed by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch in the 1930s, the Haber-Bosch process remains the basis for industrial ammonia production today. Through reducing energy requirements by half in the last 50 years, centralized industrial plants have kept their technical and economic advantage over other modes of operation. However, the centralized production also comes with high transportation costs, since plant capacities usually exceed local ammonia consumption [1]. This and the fact that conventional ammonia production is a major contributor of world greenhouse gas emissions (due to natural gas being one of its feedstocks) are motivating factors for researchers to consider alternative methods for smaller-scale and more environmentally-friendly ammonia production [2]. Continue reading →

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Our Iowa Renewable Hydrogen and Ammonia Generation System

Posted on October 1, 2017 by | 2 comments

Jay Schmuecker1*, David Toyne2*
[1] Pinehurst Farm; and [2] Solutions for Automation, United States

NH3 Fuel Conference, Minneapolis, November 2, 2017
AIChE Annual Meeting, Topical Conference: NH3 Energy+

ABSTRACT

The presentation will summarize the development of the demonstration size renewable fuel and fertilizer system on my Iowa farm. Solar power, water, and air are used to make hydrogen and ammonia fuel used to power a modified John Deere 7810 tractor. The ammonia can also be used to fertilize corn cropland. The development of the ammonia reactor will be described and its performance discussed. There are no carbon emissions in either the generation or consumption of the hydrogen and ammonia. Continue reading →

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Dense Metallic Membrane Reactor Synthesis of Ammonia at Moderate Conditions and Low Cost

Posted on October 1, 2017 by | 3 comments

Thomas Fuerst*, Sean Lundin, Zhenyu Zhang, Simona Liguori, Douglas Way, Colin Wolden
Colorado School of Mines, United States

NH3 Fuel Conference, Minneapolis, November 2, 2017
AIChE Annual Meeting, Topical Conference: NH3 Energy+

ABSTRACT

Commercial ammonia synthesis relies on the Haber–Bosch process that has remained largely unchanged for a hundred years. The equilibrium constant of this exothermic reaction quickly becomes unfavorable above 200 °C, but the catalyst requires temperatures above 400 °C to have sufficient activity. To overcome these conflicting requirements the process is conducted at extremely high pressure (100 – 200 atm) using multiple passes with inter-stage cooling to achieve sufficient conversion. A cost analysis reveals the compressors needed to reach the required pressures consist of 50% the capital cost for Haber-Bosch. Therefore, a longstanding scientific challenge has been to achieve NH3 synthesis at near ambient pressure which could reduce the ammonia production cost by as much as 30%. Continue reading →

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Nitride-Based Step Catalysis for Ammonia Synthesis at Atmospheric Pressure

Posted on October 1, 2017 by | 1 comment

Peter Pfromm, Michael Heidlage*, Bin Liu, Nannan Shan, Viktor Chikan, Hongfu Luo, Nate Flesher
Kansas State University, United States

NH3 Fuel Conference, Minneapolis, November 2, 2017
AIChE Annual Meeting, Topical Conference: NH3 Energy+

ABSTRACT

Formation of metal nitrides to activate dinitrogen is one avenue to ammonia and other nitrogen compounds. Attractive aspects are operation at atmospheric pressure and moderate temperatures, formation of stable chemical intermediates rather than reliance on somewhat sensitive heterogeneous catalysis, and inexpensive materials. If a single metal is used, however, one encounters tradeoffs somewhat akin to the well-known tradeoffs for Haber-Bosch catalysts. Results will be presented for metal nitride-based ammonia synthesis, and new metal alloys that can address some of the tradeoffs between affinity for nitrogen, and formation of ammonia when hydrogen is added. Options using water instead of hydrogen will also be included. Continue reading →

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