1921–2021: A Century of Renewable Ammonia Synthesis

Abstract

Synthetic ammonia, manufactured by the Haber–Bosch process and its variants, is the key to securing global food security. Hydrogen is the most important feedstock for all synthetic ammonia processes. Renewable ammonia production relies on hydrogen generated by water electrolysis using electricity generated from hydropower. This was used commercially as early as 1921. In the present work, we discuss how renewable ammonia production subsequently emerged in those countries endowed with abundant hydropower, and in particular in regions with limited or no oil, gas, and coal deposits. Thus, renewable ammonia played an important role in national food security for countries without fossil fuel resources until after the mid-20th century. For economic reasons, renewable ammonia production declined from the 1960s onward in favor of fossil-based ammonia production. However, renewable ammonia has recently gained traction again as an energy vector. It is an important component of the rapidly emerging hydrogen economy. Renewable ammonia will probably play a significant role in maintaining national and global energy and food security during the 21st century.

Process Modeling and Simulation of Ammonia Production from Natural Gas: Control and Response Analysis

“…With an annual increment ranging from 1.67-2.3% in the last few years, its estimated value is put at 100 billion USD with 226 MMT average annual production between 2010-2020 (Brightling, 2018;Macfarlane et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2019). First NH3 plant was constructed by the German firm, BASF at Oppau, in 1913 (Pattabathula & Richardson, 2016;Rouwenhorst et al, 2022). After then, several other plants of higher capacities (Table 1) were developed, the largest being able to produce 3300 mtpd or 3640 stpd (Brightling, 2018).…”

Optimizing Renewable Ammonia Production for a Sustainable Fertilizer Supply Chain Transition

“…Ammonia is the building block of nitrogen fertilizer and today its synthetic production supports approximately half of global food supply [1] . This production is also responsible for 1 to 2 % of total global emissions due to its reliance on natural gas and coal as sources of its constituent hydrogen [2,3] . Replacing this hydrogen with that sourced from renewable‐powered water electrolysis to make renewable or “green” ammonia has the potential to mitigate these sustainability concerns while still ensuring the availability of arguably the backbone of modern agriculture.…”

Structural evolution of TiN catalysts during mechanocatalytic ammonia synthesis

“…Virtually all of the world's ammonia is currently produced by the Haber-Bosch process, which accounts for approximately 1% of global CO 2 emissions. 1,2 Ammonia synthesis is burdened by two competing factors: the high energy needed to activate the very stable N 2 triple-bond and increasing thermodynamic limitations with increasing temperature. 3 While catalysts and advanced reaction engineering have allowed for an economically viable process, harsh reaction conditions (>375 °C, >100 atm) must still be used, which can only be economically viable in large-scale, centralized plants.…”