Site items in: Cracking Ammonia

CSIRO Partner Revealed for NH3-to-H2 Technology
Article

Last week Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) announced the formation of a partnership that will support commercialization of CSIRO’s high-purity ammonia-to-hydrogen conversion technology.  Michael Dolan, Principal Research Scientist for the ammonia-to-hydrogen project, had signaled such a development on the occasion of the technology’s first public demonstration in August 2018, saying in a contemporaneous Ammonia Energy post that the identity of “a major industrial partner” would be revealed shortly. The partner turns out to be Fortescue Metals Group (FMG).  A November 22 article in Business Insider Australia states that the company will invest “[AUD]$19.1 million [USD$13.8] in technology developed by the CSIRO to make hydrogen vehicles viable in a potential gamechanger for the transport industry.”

Ammonia-to-Hydrogen System for FCEV Refuelling
Presentation

Ammonia can play a significant role in fuelling the world’s growing fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) fleet through technologies which allow the decomposition of NH3, and subsequent extraction and purification of H2. CSIRO has recently demonstrated a pilot-scale ammonia-to-hydrogen system, incorporating an ammonia decomposition stage with a subsequent membrane-based hydrogen purification stage, at a rate of several kilograms of H2 per day. Through partnerships with an industrial gas producer and two FCEV manufacturers, the resulting H2 has been compressed and dispensed into FCEVs. System design, materials, performance and strategies for scale-up and demonstration will be discussed.

Development of Catalytic Reactors and Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Systems for Utilization of Ammonia
Presentation

Hydrogen is the primary fuel source for fuel cells. However, the low volume density and difficulty in storage and transportation are major obstacles for the practical utilization. Among various hydrogen carriers, ammonia is one of the promising candidates because of its high hydrogen density and boiling point and ease in liquefaction and transportation. The reaction temperature of ammonia cracking to nitrogen and hydrogen, being about 600°C or higher, is close to the operating temperature of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). The integration of these two devices is beneficial in terms of heat and energy managements and will lead to the…

Material Discovery and High Throughput Exploration of Ru Based Catalysts for Low Temperature Ammonia Decomposition
Presentation

High throughput experimentation gives us the unique ability to generate massive, multidimensional datasets that are not typical for heterogeneous catalysis studies. Here, we show the synthesis and catalytic screening of over 100 different Ru based bimetallic catalyst combinations using 33 different metals that were synthesized via incipient wetness impregnation. The catalysts were analyzed using Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS) for phase identification. Catalysts were screened for ammonia decomposition activity using a 16-channel parallel plug flow reactor. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) imaging was used to analyze all 16 effluent streams in parallel in under one minute. All results obtained from WAXS…

Catalytic Membrane Reactors for Efficient Delivery of High Purity Hydrogen from Ammonia Decomposition
Presentation

The deployment of fuel cell electric vehicles is constrained by the paucity of hydrogen fueling stations and price, which is dominated by the costs of hydrogen storage and transportation. With more hydrogen per volume than liquid H2 and an extensive distribution infrastructure in place, ammonia is a promising vector for efficient hydrogen distribution. In this talk we describe the development of innovative catalytic membrane reactor (CMR) technology for the delivery of high purity H2 from ammonia cracking. The CMR integrates state-of-the art catalysts with thin metal membranes in an innovative design. Conventionally, the catalyst is supplied to CMRs in the…

Ammonia As a Hydrogen Carrier for PEM Fuel Cells
Presentation

Ammonia (NH3) is easily liquefied by compression at 1 MPa and 25°C, and has highest volumetric hydrogen density of 10.7 kg H2 /100L. It has high gravimetric hydrogen density of 17.8 wt%. The heat of formation of NH3 is about 1/10 of combustion heat of hydrogen. NH3 has advantages as a hydrogen carrier for fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). ISO 14687-2:2012 specifies the quality characteristics of hydrogen fuel. The maximum concentration of NH3 and N2 for the FCVs is 0.1ppm and 100 ppm, respectively. The minimum H2 purity is 99.97%. We need component technologies to produce high-purity hydrogen from ammonia, together…

Ammonia for Power: a literature review
Article

"Ammonia for Power" is an open-access literature review that includes over 300 citations for recent and ongoing research in the use of ammonia in engines, fuel cells, and turbines, as well as providing references to decades of historical case studies and publications. The review, written by a consortium of ammonia energy experts from the University of Cardiff, University of Oxford, the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council, and Tsinghua University in China, can be found in the November 2018 edition of Progress in Energy and Combustion Science.

CSIRO Demonstrates Ammonia-to-Hydrogen Fueling System
Article

On August 8th Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) gave a public demonstration of its newly developed ammonia-to-hydrogen fueling technology.  In an interview this week with Ammonia Energy, Principal Research Scientist Michael Dolan reported that the demonstration drew more media attention than any event in CSIRO’s history – “by a comfortable margin.”  The reporting sounded a set of celebratory themes, summed up by this headline from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Hydrogen fuel breakthrough in Queensland could fire up massive new export market.  The stories, in other words, focused on what the demonstration could mean for fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) and the Australian economy.  They did not penetrate to the heart of the matter which involved a practical development whose importance can be uniquely appreciated by the ammonia energy community.

GenCell launches commercial alkaline fuel cell using cracked ammonia fuel
Article

GenCell Energy, the Israeli fuel cell manufacturer, has made two major announcements in the last month. In June, it unveiled its ammonia-fueled alkaline fuel cell system. In July, it announced its first commercial customer. Its A5 Off-Grid Power Solution is a "nano power plant that operates fully independent of the grid." The first phase of product trials, using ammonia as a fuel to provide uninterruptible power to cell phone masts, will begin in Kenya by the end of this year, and "product roll-out" is expected in the second half of 2019.