Nitrogen electroreduction with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency (2022)
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Re: Nitrogen electroreduction with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency (2022)
#2Big if true...
This could enable fertilizer production with no CO2 emissions. The numbers in the paper suggest that it might prove cheaper than natural gas based production which is common today. Fertilizer production is 2.1% of all CO2 emissions right now.
Re: Nitrogen electroreduction with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency (2022)
#3What does the term "current-to-ammonia efficiency" mean here? I imagine it would refer to the specificity of the reaction, i.e. that 99% of the electrons passing through the system are used in the main reaction, and The abstract doesn't go into detail on energy efficiency and a comparison to the old method using gas. For instance, would this method result in less CO2 emissions using regular grid electricity, or would it need to be 100% low-carbon electricity? If, say, the electricity came from a CCGT plant, how would that compare? Etc etc
Re: Nitrogen electroreduction with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency (2022)
#4This would be a gigantic breakthrough if true and scalable, correct? Most ammonia production for fertilizer currently uses natural gas, and of clean sources of electricity with such a high yield of ammonia production would have a huge worldwide impact. So is there something I'm missing?
Re: Nitrogen electroreduction with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency (2022)
#5[flagged]
Re: Nitrogen electroreduction with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency (2022)
#6This would be a gigantic breakthrough if true and scalable, correct? Most ammonia production for fertilizer currently uses natural gas, and of clean sources of electricity with such a high yield of ammonia production would have a huge worldwide impact. So is there something I'm missing?
The scalable part is going to be difficult though.
This is not all that different from the production of hydrogen. Hydrogen is most economically produced from natural gas nowadays. You can produce it from water, with (just like here) an almost 100% current-to-hydrogen efficiency. But it's still twice as expensive, if not more.
Re: Nitrogen electroreduction with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency (2022)
#7Big if true... This could enable fertilizer production with no CO2 emissions. The numbers in the paper suggest that it might prove cheaper than natural gas based production which is common today. Fertilizer production is 2.1% of all CO2 emissions right now.
Not just fertilizer:
"In addition to its use in the fertilizer and chemical industries, ammonia is currently seen as a potential replacement for carbon-based fuels and as a carrier for worldwide transportation of renewable energy."
Long-term grid storage?
Publication: 22 July 2022
Anyone know if maybe some pilot / small scale production facility has been set up in the mean time?
I've read about a farm that produced its own fertilizer, but dunno whether that uses this or some older / unrelated process.
Would be a huge breakthrough in any case.
Re: Nitrogen electroreduction with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency (2022)
#8Big if true... This could enable fertilizer production with no CO2 emissions. The numbers in the paper suggest that it might prove cheaper than natural gas based production which is common today. Fertilizer production is 2.1% of all CO2 emissions right now.
Not just fertilizer: "In addition to its use in the fertilizer and chemical industries, ammonia is currently seen as a potential replacement for carbon-based fuels and as a carrier for worldwide transportation of renewable energy." Long-term grid storage? Publication: 22 July 2022 Anyone know if maybe some pilot / small scale production facility has been set up in the mean time? I've read about a farm that produced i…
Are there power plants today that burn ammonia directly? If not, is it a simple/cheap enough conversion?
Re: Nitrogen electroreduction with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency (2022)
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not just fertilizer: "In addition to its use in the fertilizer and chemical industries, ammonia is currently seen as a potential replacement for carbon-based fuels and as a carrier for worldwide transportation of renewable energy." Long-term grid storage? Publication: 22 July 2022 Anyone know if maybe some pilot / small scale production facility has been set up in the mean time? I've read about a farm that produced i…
Are there power plants today that burn ammonia directly? If not, is it a simple/cheap enough conversion?
It is actually cheaper because of existing infrastructure that exists for fertilisers manufacturing.
But the main concern is that ammonia burns slowly. It might work in power plants but not in EVs
Re: Nitrogen electroreduction with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency (2022)
#10This would be a gigantic breakthrough if true and scalable, correct? Most ammonia production for fertilizer currently uses natural gas, and of clean sources of electricity with such a high yield of ammonia production would have a huge worldwide impact. So is there something I'm missing?
If you can start/stop the process easily, it could be a great sink for excess solar capacity.