Producing Cheap Clean Ammonia

This could be fabulous news but I am puzzled. At the end of this we have ammonia and presumably left over oxygen, but combusting NH3 with oxygen is often proposed in zero carbon engine arrangements, so there would be potential energy if the ammonia is 'free'. Perhaps the NH3 comes in an aqueous solution requiring more energy for extraction? Or is mechanical energy from the sprayer providing debonding/bonding energy? This obviously needs brains that studied chemistry past age 18. Good luck with this, as the whole world is sitting on a fossil gas hob with lots of mouths to feed.

Ammonia is primarily used for fertilizer at this time, and is almost entirely made from nat gas...methane...if a cheap alternative method of production like this can be developed, it would enable poor countries to produce their own fertilizer and increase crop yields in an environmentally friendly way...as well as creating their own fuel for electrical generation... I think the secret to separation is pressure and temperature control...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_separation

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/anhydrous-ammonia

To remove hydrogen from the water molecule and separating two nitrogen atoms from N2 requires energy, a little of which is returned when the hydrogen is combined with the nitrogen atom to form ammonia. This energy is supplied by the combustion of methane in the Haber process. The supplied energy is returned when the ammonia is burned, releasing nitrogen and water.

Where does the energy come from in this new process?

..."Zare said the lab found that microdroplets of water produce a strong chemical reaction when hitting hard surfaces. To produce ammonia, the team of scientists break nitrogen bonds by moving water microdroplets, nitrogen gas and iron oxide through a gas-powered sprayer. The process relies on water microdroplets’ ability to react on hard surfaces.

The iron oxide serves as the catalyst for the reaction — accelerating the reaction without being changed by the reaction. The researchers put the catalyst in a graphite mesh for the sprayer. The sprayer then releases microdroplets, where the pumped water and nitrogen react with the help of the catalyst to form ammonia (NH3). "...

https://web.stanford.edu/group/Zarelab/research.html

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2301206120#:~:text=Large%2Dscale%20ammonia%20production%20is,%E2%86%92%202NH3%20(2).

Quite. The fact that energy input is not mentioned in the article makes me very suspicious. Seems unlikely there's enough energy in the water spray, but if so they should say that.

My guess is that there may be a tiny amount of ammonia produced, but scaling it up to industrial amounts would be very difficult and making it economical even more difficult. Atomizing a water stream seems to be a very inefficient way to put energy into the system.

There's no denying this is a first step, I just find it interesting that ammonia can be made like this, and wouldn't rule out additional process refinements....give them a few years and we'll see what it looks like...

This sounds like a laboratory-scale discovery. Will it scale up to produce useful quantities? I didn't see anything about it being peer-reviewed.

How does the size of "microdroplets" compare to the size of the vapor from a humidifier? This leads to a question: will it be difficult to produce droplets that are small enough? Producing droplets sounds like it might need a compressor and the energy input to run it.

If microdroplets are reactive, I wonder what else can be done with them?

More information is needed.

..."Some critical sonic spray conditions were systematically varied to optimize the nebulizing gas pressure (80 psi),"...

..." The best capillary diameter is found to be 50 µm in diameter, which can generate microdroplets with the median size at 10 μm"...

..."Both ultrasonic and steam humidifiers provide droplet sizes with volumes of approximately 0.52 cubic microns. "....

by my calculation that is 0.000997703679mm in diameter..

A 10μm diameter drop would be 523.598776 μm³ in volume...

So it seems like an ordinary air compressor would do the job, no need for a dryer as the condensate from the air would supply the water just need a nozzle with 100 -200, 50 micron holes drilled....the smallest particle size that can be seen with the naked eye is about 25 microns...

If the energy needed comes as mechanical or electrical energy this can be fine, as wind or solar energy are now cheap, could be co-located on site to avoid grid charges. Maybe an agricultural area both wet and windy with access to EU and UK markets. Like Northern Ireland perhaps :)

Amogy a Brooklyn, NY company strips the Hydrogen from ammonia and runs it through a fuel cell. Their tests have been interesting. Refueling times are equivalent to gasoline. As ammonia is quite stable, it is far safer than gasoline. It is also used in commercial A/C and refrigeration units.

An infinitely better scenario than batteries and/or carrying liquid Hydrogen

But this thread is about making ammonia, not using it.

They are currently using the Haber Bosch method. Which is the more efficient is the issue.

That's right, but what has it to do with your #10?

Ammonia can be used in diesel engines....

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267576471_Diesel_Engine_Operation_Using_Ammonia_as_a_Carbon-Free_Fuel

That's all true, but this thread is about whether the new process is an improvement on Haber-Bosch.

You are right of course,but my reply was directed to #10 stating that ammonia was safer than gasoline,so I guess both could be considered OT.

"As ammonia is quite stable, it is far safer than gasoline."

Some would disagree ...

Open a five gallon container of gasoline in your garage, then wait five minutes, Then open a container with five gallons of Anhydrous Ammonia, wait for five minutes .... Let us know your results

"It is also used in commercial A/C and refrigeration units" ...

Yes indeed, but you are aware that both gasoline AND Ammonia are flammable and can be used to fuel Internal Combustion ingines

Here's another clean cheap method of producing ammonia from water with lithium used to split the nitrogen...

..."It is a curious quirk of chemistry that when lithium atoms work together, they can break one of the strongest known chemical bonds. Lithium can take the triple-bonded nitrogen molecule (N2) and, under ambient conditions, break it in two."...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01659-w

You can do all sorts of things if you have enough renewable power! In the process shown the hydrogen has to be produced (using renewable or non-renewable power). Still have to consider the overall energy balance vs Haber-Bosch.

It's expected to reach parity in the near future, at around $1. per kg...so if we look at that, and factor in the elimination of carbon produced, it seems like a good thing...

"Chemists develop ferromagnetic single-atom spin catalyst for boosting water splitting reactions"

https://phys.org/news/2023-05-chemists-ferromagnetic-single-atom-catalyst-boosting.html

..."Once complete, the joint venture between Acwa Power, Air Products and NEOM will be the world’s largest green hydrogen production facility – stretched over 300km2 of land, in which around 5.6 million solar panels will produce up to 2.2GW of solar energy. When operational, it promises a staggering output of carbon-free hydrogen, Edmondson said.

“Once operational, we will supply up to 600 tonnes per day of carbon-free hydrogen for transportation globally, integrating up to 4GW of solar and wind energy and exporting up to 1.2 million tonnes of green ammonia annually through the combined expertise of our three shareholders,” the CEO told Al Arabiya English.

Edmondson puts this figure into context, explaining if all this hydrogen is used in the heavy-duty truck market, “this will translate to as much as five million tonnes of CO2 emissions being eliminated from the atmosphere per year.”

“Producing 600 tonnes of green hydrogen daily is enough to power around 20,000 hydrogen-fuelled buses and trucks around the world and will save almost five million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year compared to diesel trucks or buses.”"...

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/saudi-arabia/2023/05/25/Saudi-s-green-hydrogen-plant-will-put-Kingdom-on-global-map-for-clean-energy-CEO

...."As of August 2021, the average cost of ammonia per gallon is around $0.55 to $0.75."...

...."Hydrogen constitutes 17.65% of the mass of ammonia. "...

..."Ammonia weighs 5.15 pounds per gallon in contrast to water which weights 8.33 pounds per gallon."...

So 2.4 gallons of ammonia = 12.36 lbs divided by 17.65% = around 1 kg of hydrogen = 70 miles range fuel cell car...there is of course some loss in conversion process...but we're probably still under $2 per kg...