Tag Archives: Green Ammonia Synthesis

Advances in Making High Purity Nitrogen for Small Scale Ammonia Generation

David Toyne*, Solutions for Automation, USA; Jay Schmuecker, Pinehurst Farm, USA

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

ABSTRACT

The presentation will address recent developments in the Solar Hydrogen Demonstration Project in which hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia are made from solar power, water, and air; and used to fuel a modified John Deere farm tractor.

In industrial applications very pure nitrogen is made by cryogenic distillation of air. Using Pressure Swing Absorption systems alone it is extremely difficult to achieve the required purity. An improved method was developed for making high purity nitrogen, for smaller systems.
Will discuss how, when Oxygen contaminates the reactor catalyst, Hydrogen is used to purge the catalyst, and subsequently used as fuel. Continue reading

Ammonia Absorption and Desorption in Ammines

Collin Smith, Mahdi Malmali, Chen-Yu Liu, Alon McCormick, E L Cussler*, University of Minnesota, USA

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

ABSTRACT

While adsorption onto solids is a common separation process, absorption into solids is much less often used. The reason is that absorption is usually assumed ineffective because it includes very slow solute diffusion into the solid. An exception may be the separation of ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen using ammines, especially at temperatures close to those used in ammonia synthesis. There, ammonia can be selectively absorbed by calcium chloride; nitrogen and hydrogen are not absorbed. The kinetics of ammonia release seem to be diffusion controlled. The kinetics of absorption are consistent with a first order reaction and diffusion in series, so the rate controlling step changes with the amount of absorption. The potential of this separation in the distributed production of ammonia is discussed both as a source of fertilizer and as a means of wind energy storage.

Read the abstract at the AIChE website.

DOWNLOAD

Download this presentation [PDF].

RELATED NH3 FUEL CONFERENCE PAPERS

2018: Design Optimization of an Ammonia-Based Distributed Sustainable Agricultural Energy System
2017: Design Optimization of a Distributed Ammonia Generation System
2017: Lower Pressure Ammonia Synthesis
2016: Small Scale Low-Pressure Ammonia Synthesis
2015: Potential Strategies for Distributed, Small-Scale Sustainable Ammonia Production [PDF]
2014: Life-cycle greenhouse gas and energy balance of community-scale wind powered ammonia production
2013: Ammonia Production Using Wind Energy
2012: Lessons Learned in Developing a Wind-to-Ammonia Pilot Plant [PDF]
2011: Production of Anhydrous Ammonia from Wind Energy — Anatomy of a Pilot Plant, The Sequel [PDF]
2010: Production of Anhydrous Ammonia from Wind Energy — Anatomy of a Pilot Plant [PDF]
2009: Ammonia from Wind, Progress Update [PDF]
2008: Ammonia from Wind, an Update [PDF]
2007: Ammonia from Wind, an Update [PDF]
2006: Wind to Ammonia [PDF]

LINKS

Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota
West Central Research & Outreach Center, University of Minnesota
Learn more about the 2018 NH3 Fuel Conference

Design Optimization of an Ammonia-Based Distributed Sustainable Agricultural Energy System

Matthew J. Palys*, Anatoliy Kuznetsov, Joel Tallaksen, Michael Reese, Prodromos Daoutidis, University of Minnesota, USA

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

ABSTRACT

Small-scale, distributed production of ammonia better enables the use of renewable energy for its synthesis than the current paradigm of large-scale, centralized production. Pursuant to this idea, a small-scale Haber-Bosch process has been installed at the West Central Research and Outreach Center (WCROC) in Morris, MN [1] and there is ongoing work on an absorbent-enhanced process at the University of Minnesota [2], [3]. Using renewables to make ammonia would greatly improve the sustainability of fertilizer production, which currently accounts for 1% of total global energy consumption [4]. The promise of renewable-powered, distributed ammonia production for sustainability is in fact not limited to fertilizer, because ammonia also has potential as an energy-dense, carbon-neutral fuel. For example, using ammonia produced from renewable energy for nitrogen fertilizer, grain drying fuel and tractor fuel at the WCROC farm would reduce more than 90% of the fossil energy footprint associated with corn production [5].

In this light, we envision a distributed sustainable agricultural (farm) energy system (DSAE) fundamentally based on the idea of ammonia as not only a fertilizer, but also a fuel and a method of energy storage. Specifically, this system will use only renewable energy to produce ammonia for use as fertilizer and agricultural fuel (for cropping equipment and grain drying) at the scale of a single farm or an agricultural cooperative. It will also use renewables to meet local power and heat demands in a manner synergistic to distributed ammonia production; the difference in power and heat (hourly) and ammonia (monthly or biannually) demand time scales gives rise to opportunities for temporally flexible ammonia production and locally controllable power generation using ammonia. Heat integration will also be possible due to the exothermic nature of ammonia synthesis. Continue reading

Realisation of Large-Scale Green Ammonia Plants

Markus Will, thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, Germany

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

ABSTRACT

The global ammonia production is nowadays mostly based on fossil energy carriers (natural gas, coal, naphtha, etc.). It consumes approximately 1.4% fossil energy carriers and releases more than 1.4% of global CO2 emissions.

In order to continue the global transition from the fossil fuel and nuclear energy age to the renewable energy age, ammonia could play a key role. Beside the continued utilization for fertilizer industry, ammonia could become an energy and/or hydrogen carrier as well.

thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions (tkIS) developed a concept to establish Green Ammonia Plants as an alternative to conventional world-scale ammonia plants. As industry leader in electrolysis (AWE technology) and ammonia business (uhde® ammonia synthesis), tkIS combines the knowledge in both technologies to offer electricity-based ammonia plants in the near future. Continue reading

Demonstration of CO2-Free Ammonia Synthesis Using Renewable Energy-Generated Hydrogen

Mototaka Kai*, Yasushi Fujimura, Takayoshi Fujimoto, JGC Corporation, Japan; Hideyuki Takagi, Yuichi Manaka, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan; Tetsuya Nanba, Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, AIST (FREA), Japan

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

ABSTRACT

In Japan, the government funding project SIP, Strategic Innovation Promotion Program, supports the research, development and demonstration of “Energy Carriers”. The concept of the “Energy Carriers” value chain is to produce hydrogen energy carriers overseas from fossil resources using CCS or renewable energy, and transport it to Japan for utilization as clean energy. The purpose of the program is to help realize a low-carbon society in Japan by using hydrogen. Among energy carriers, ammonia is the one of the most promising carriers, because of the ease of transportation as a liquid, higher hydrogen density, and proven technologies for commercial and industrial scale, not only for production, storage, and transportation, but also its utilization in chemical plants and DeNOx units for electric power plants.

Under the theme of “Development of ammonia synthesis from CO2-free hydrogen” of SIP ”Energy Carriers”, JGC is developing the advanced ammonia synthesis process using renewable energy, such as Photovoltaic and Wind Turbine Power Generation, to be able to produce “Green” ammonia, aiming to contribute to a low-carbon society. Also, utilizing the catalysts developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (hereinafter “AIST”), National Institute of Technology Numazu College, and JGC C&C, AIST and JGC designed and constructed an ammonia synthesis demonstration plant in FREA, the Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, AIST by the end of fiscal year 2017. From April 2018, the plant started operation to evaluate the performance of the developed catalysts and acquire the engineering data for scaling up in the future.

In this paper, we would like to explain the details of the ammonia synthesis demonstration plant in FREA, such as process flow, plant operation conditions, its capacity, and the status of plant operation. Continue reading

Rapid Ramp NH3 Prototype Reactor Update

Joseph Beach*, Jonathan Kintner, Adam Welch, Starfire Energy, USA

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

ABSTRACT

Starfire Energy has built and operated a low pressure, fast-ramping prototype reactor using its Rapid Ramp NH3 process. It has synthesized, captured, and liquefied NH3 with all system pressures staying below 12.5 bar. The prototype reactor’s performance will be discussed. Continue reading

Roadmap to All Electric Ammonia Plants

John B. Hansen*, Pat A. Han, Haldor Topsøe, Denmark

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

ABSTRACT

Haldor Topsøe A/S is a world leading supplier of technology and catalyst for the ammonia industry.

It is also a developer of Solid Oxide Electrolyzer technology. A road map towards all electrical ammonia plants of the future has been worked out implementing at first steps hybrid natural gas based/classical electrolyzer technology and ultimately SOEC based plants without air separation units. Continue reading