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Article

Next-generation ammonia tech: biohybrid nanoparticles

Trevor Brown August 02, 2017

Sustainable ammonia can be produced today: doing so would use electrolyzers to make hydrogen to feed the traditional Haber-Bosch process. In a very few years, new technologies will skip this hydrogen production phase altogether and make ammonia directly from renewable power in an electrochemical cell. Further down the pipeline, next generation technologies will mimic nature, specifically the nitrogenase enzyme, which produces ammonia naturally. One of these next generation technologies is currently producing impressive results at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Article

Program Announced for NH3 Energy+ Topical Conference

Stephen H. Crolius July 27, 2017

The program for the “NH3 Energy+: Enabling Optimized, Sustainable Energy and Agriculture” Topical Conference is now available for viewing on the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Web portal. The Topical Conference will be held as part of the AIChE's Annual Meeting in Minneapolis in the U.S. on Wednesday November 1 and Thursday November 2. The enveloping AIChE meeting will extend from Sunday October 29 through Friday November 3. “NH3 Energy+” is the 2017 edition of the NH3 Fuel Conference that has been held every year since 2004. A total of 43 papers will be presented, with 40 spread across five oral presentation sessions and three in a poster session.

Article

NH3 Energy+ and Food Security

Norm Olson July 27, 2017

A guest editorial by Norm Olson, President of the NH3 Fuel Association. In 2004, the NH3 Fuel Association began promoting NH₃ as the best alternative fuel choice to replace gasoline and diesel fuel. Recently, I have been using the "NH₃ Energy+" title in place of "NH₃ Fuel" in presentations to illustrate that the benefits of NH₃ go beyond fuels and go beyond energy storage (as important as these two items are). NH₃ also provides a tremendous opportunity to significantly improve world food security and enable sustainable, local food production.

Article

Sustainable ammonia synthesis: SUNCAT's lithium-cycling strategy

Trevor Brown July 21, 2017

New research coming out of Stanford University suggests a fascinating new direction for electrochemical ammonia synthesis technology development. The US-Danish team of scientists at SUNCAT, tasked with finding new catalysts for electrochemical ammonia production, saw that 'selectivity' posed a tremendous challenge - in other words, most of the energy used by renewable ammonia production systems went into making hydrogen instead of making ammonia. The new SUNCAT solution does not overcome this selectivity challenge. It doesn't even try. Instead, these researchers have avoided the problem completely.

Article

Ammonia-Fueled Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Advance at Kyoto University

Stephen H. Crolius July 20, 2017

Earlier this month the Eguchi Laboratory at Kyoto University announced advances in ammonia-fueled solid oxide fuel cell technology. The lab was able to produce a functioning fuel cell with a power output of one kilowatt. The device attained “direct current power generation efficiency” in excess of 50% and reached 1,000 hours of continuous operation.

Article

NH3 Fuel Association Chapter Launching in Australia

Stephen H. Crolius July 13, 2017

Following the NH3 Fuel Association’s call last September for the formation of national organizations to advocate for ammonia energy, a chapter of the Association is taking shape in Australia. John Mott, until recently CEO of the Australian industrial refrigeration concern Gordon Brothers, has spearheaded the formation of a local chapter of the NH3 Fuel Association (NH3FA). The chapter will be known informally as the NH3 Fuel Association Oz. Monash University, Australia’s largest university, has agreed to host the organization.

Article

Ammonia for grid-scale power: Nuon, Gasunie, and Statoil

Trevor Brown July 12, 2017

A new collaboration was announced last week, between Dutch power company Nuon, European natural gas pipeline operator Gasunie, and Norwegian oil major Statoil. The joint venture will look at converting one of the Magnum power plant's three 440 MW gasifiers, with hopes to have it running on hydrogen fuel by 2023. This is the continuation of the Power to Ammonia project and, although ammonia is not expected to be used in this particular stage of the project, converting Magnum to hydrogen fuel represents the "intermediate step" to demonstrate that "where hydrogen could be produced using natural gas by 2023, from the year 2030 it could be possible to produce it with sustainably produced ammonia ... Ammonia then effectively serves as a storage medium for hydrogen, making Magnum a super battery."

Article

The Ammonia Economy at the ACS National Meeting

Trevor Brown July 06, 2017

The American Chemical Society (ACS) has published the program for its 2017 National Meeting, which takes place next month in Washington DC and includes a session dedicated to the "Ammonia Economy." The first day of the week-long meeting, Sunday August 20th, will feature a full morning of technical papers from the US, UK, and Japan, covering ammonia energy topics across three general areas: producing hydrogen from ammonia, developing new catalysts for ammonia synthesis and oxidation, and storing ammonia in solid chemical form.

Article

On the Ground in Australia: Two Key Mentions for Ammonia Energy

Stephen H. Crolius July 05, 2017

Ammonia energy is about the development of technology, but it is also about the mobilization of investment. To be precise, it is about how evolving technology can attract investment and how investment enables technological evolution. A dynamic of this nature is emerging in Australia, where recent citations of ammonia energy in two mainstream venues signal its arrival as a legitimate target for public- and private-sector investment.

Article

The International Energy Agency's scenarios for renewable ammonia

Trevor Brown June 29, 2017

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has just published Energy Technology Perspectives 2017, the latest in its long-running annual series, subtitled "Catalysing Energy Technology Transformations." In this year's edition, for the first time, ammonia is featured in two major technology transformations. First, ammonia production is shown making a significant transition away from fossil fuel feedstocks and towards electrification, using hydrogen made with electrolyzers. And, following this assumption that sustainable ammonia will be widely available in the future, the IEA takes the next logical step and also classifies ammonia "as an energy carrier," in the category of future "electricity-based fuels (PtX synthetic fuels)." The inclusion of this pair of technology transformations represents a major step towards broader acceptance of ammonia as an energy vector, from the perspectives of both technical feasibility and policy imperative.