Site items in: Presentations

Microwave Catalysis for Ammonia Synthesis Under Mild Reaction Conditions
Presentation

A scalable, cost-effective catalytic process of ammonia synthesis is developed by using microwave excitation under mild reaction conditions. In this research project funded by DOE ARPA-E, our interdisciplinary team of WVU, NETL, PNNL, FSU and two industrial partners have demonstrated that ammonia synthesis can be carried out at 200-300 °C and ambient pressure. This transformational process integrates system elements of electromagnetic sensitive catalysts and microwave reactor design. Taking advantages of state-of-the art non-equilibrium microwave plasma technology, catalytic ammonia synthesis undergoes a new reaction pathway where the barrier for the initial dissociation of the dinitrogen is decoupled from the bonding energy…

Creating a Redox Materials Database for Solar-Thermochemical Air Separation and Fuels Production
Presentation

Converting heat from renewable sources into other forms of energy is considered an essential factor in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. For instance, high temperatures can be reached using concentrated solar power (CSP), and the thus-captured energy can be converted into so-called solar fuels via thermochemical processes. These consist of the partial reduction of a redox material, usually a metal oxide, at high temperatures following the exothermic re-oxidation of this material at a lower temperature level using steam or CO2, which are thus converted into hydrogen or carbon monoxide, respectively. These two gases can be combined to generate syngas…

Terrestrial Energy, National Lab, Southern Company – Partnership Overview Using Integral Molten Salt Reactor Technology with HyS Acid for Hydrogen Production
Presentation

Demands for safe secure supplies of potable water across the planet are increasing faster than can be provided by natural, ever depleting sources of fresh water. At the same time, world demand for electric power is also accelerating. Making H2 from Natural Gas is not an optimal or efficient process that is also un-economic at higher gas costs. An Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) is uniquely suited to provide the very high temperatures (585 °C+ working temps.) that are needed to both generate significant amounts of Hydrogen, Oxygen (a feed for industrial oxygen uses) and Electricity needed for advanced economies…

Ammonia Synthesis Via Radiofrequency Plasma Catalysis
Presentation

Introduction: In 1909, a compound named Ammonia was discovered. Through the 20th century, the immense potential of this chemical was exploited by using in almost every product, from process industry for fertilizer and chemical production to every use in cosmetics, household cleaners and medicines. Recently, fuel cells operating on liquid ammonia as working fluid have been developed on research scale. Despite of using 1-2% of total energy production for the synthesis of this compound, no significant changes have been made to the process since the first Haber-Bosch process plant has been setup. Plasma catalysis is the use of plasma and…

Advanced Catalysts Development for Small, Distributed, Clean Haber-Bosch Reactors
Presentation

The traditional Haber-Bosch (HB) synthesis of anhydrous ammonia will adapt to clean power by sourcing the hydrogen from renewable electrolysis. However, the very large scale of current HB plant designs are not well-matched to smaller and more distributed clean power resources. Plant/reactor designs need to be made at a smaller scale in order to best utilize clean hydrogen. Small, megawatt scale HB reactors have an additional advantage of being better able ramp up and down with variable renewable power. This talk will detail ARPA-e funded work into the design and optimization of these smaller, clean NH3 reactors, which utilize much…

Vanadium As a Potential Catalytic Membrane Reactor Material for NH3 Production
Presentation

In solid or liquid states, ammonia salts and solutions are the active components of most synthetic fertilizers used in agriculture, which consume 83% of the world’s ammonia. Today, ammonia for fertilizers is industrially produced via the Haber-Bosch process at 400-500 °C and at pressures up to 30 MPa (300 bar). These harsh operating conditions are necessary due to the high affinity of dissociated nitrogen atoms towards the catalyst surface in addition to the high barrier associated with N2 dissociation. For these reasons, the need for advanced catalytic methods for the reduction of N2 to ammonia remains a requirement for sustainability…

Advances in Making High Purity Nitrogen for Small Scale Ammonia Generation
Presentation

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.

Scale up and Scale Down Issues of Renewable Ammonia Plants: Towards Modular Design
Presentation

Renewable sources of energy such as biomass, solar, wind or geothermal just to mention some of the most widely extended are characterized by a highly distributed production across regions (EPA, 2017). Total renewable energy available is more than enough to provide for society needs, but the traditional production paradigm is changing. Economies of scale have featured current industry and its infrastructures based on large production complexes (i.e Dow, Exxonmobil or BASF hubs). The well-known six tenths rule has extensively been used in the chemical industry to scale up or down the cost of technologies. This rule is suitable for large…

Ammonia Absorption and Desorption in Ammines
Presentation

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,…

Importance of Reaction Mechanism Involved in Design of the Catalyst and the Reactor for Future Ammonia Synthesis
Presentation

The ammonia synthesis reaction is considered to involve several elementary steps [1]: N2 + 2* → 2N(a) (1) H2 + 2* → 2H(a) (2) N(a) + H(a) → NH(a) + * (3) NH(a) + H(a) → NH2 (a) + * (4) NH2 (a) + H(a) → NH3(a) + * (5) NH3(a) → NH3 + * (6) Here, the symbol * indicates empty sites. For most metal catalysts, the dissociative adsorption of dinitrogen (step 1) is the rate-determining step, and all the other steps and its reverse step (from 2 to 6) are fast enough to be almost in equilibrium for…