Recipient Organization
NITRICITY INC.
6 COMSTOCK CIR APT 418B
STANFORD,CA 943057717
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Founded in 2018, Nitricity is electrifying and distributing the production of nitrogen fertilizer. As it is done today, fertilizer production, distribution, and application emits as much as 5-7%/yr of total global GHG emissions. In this USDA NIFA phase II award, Nitricity builds on work from the phase I award to develop an innovative plasma reactor, the heart of Nitricity's process. In the phase I award, Nitricity improved the efficiency of the reactor and demonstrated the fundamentals of operation. Phase II will focus on improving the energy efficiency further, scaling up the reactor, and applying the principle of heat recovery to improve the overall process. Increasing the scale is important. Through conversations with farmers and fertilizer producers it is clear that the fastest way to reducing the environmental impact of fertilizer is by scaling the Nitricity process from the field level to a community or co-op level as fast as possible. It also allows for economies of scale in the balance of plant. Finally, heat recovery is a general industrial principle were waste heat, which would usually be a liability, is recycled to power another part of the process. Nitricity will apply this concept to our reactor to further improve the energy efficiency of the overall process. Support from this USDA NIFA SBIR phase I grant will support work to reduce environmental impacts from and improve access to fertilizer.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
70%
Goals / Objectives
Nitricity Inc. is developing a novel fertilizer production system to turn air, water, and electricity into nitrate based fertilizers. We use a plasma reactor to fix nitrogen into nitric oxide and then absorb this into water to form nitric acid and other nitrate based fertilizers. This grant will build on our phase I work to scale up the reactor and improve heat management and recovery in the reactor. In our commercialization analysis, we identified increased scale as a critical path item for bringing our tech to market. It will allow us to realize economies of scale on the balance of plant and better respond to the customer's needs. In our technical process analysis we found that heat recovery is a pathway to dramatically reduce the total energy consumption of our process. Most of the energy that goes into our reactor is released as high grade heat. Recovering this energy will allow us to offset some electricity use and pumping energy. Our main technical objectives are:(O1) Design and build prototype 15 kW reactor(s) capable of 20 kWh/lb NWe will design and build a prototype reactor capable of fixing nitrogen at a cost of 20 kWh/lbN or less at a power level of 15 kW or more. We anticipate that the results from phase I will allow us to scale(O2) Design and implement heat recovery to the reactor from O1, perform a multivariable sweep to understand the heat transfer.We will use CAD software and measurement of reactor temperature profile to design a heat recovery system, likely including element from fire-tube boilers and shell and tube heat exchangers. The key deliverable will be a physical reactor prototype ready to test for objective 3. We will then explore the parameter space of this reactor, with variables like flow, pressure, power, and cooling water flow rate.(O3) Achieve 80% thermal efficiency of the heat recovery, produce steam of at least 150 psigWe will recover 80% of input energy, defined as the enthalpy of steam divided by the energy input to the reactor. We will do this in the form of high pressure (150 psig) steam. We have identified this as a reasonable input to a heat recovery cycle or steam driven turbomachinery.
Project Methods
Our experimental methods will include:Design of Experiments to explore large multivariable parameter spacesstatistical analysis of that data to find optimal operating points and guide future experimentsInfrared spectroscopy to analyze gas phase productsopticalemission spectroscopy to analyze plasma propertiesPower meters and specialized electronics to measure input powerWe will evaluate the efficiency of our reactor in terms of pounds of nitrogen oxidized per kilowatt hour of energyconsumed by the reactor. To measure the Nitrogen oxidized, we will use FTIR or similar techniques to measure the composition of the outlet gas. To measure the power consumed, we will use power meters or dedicated diagnostics on the power equipment. To measure energy recovered in the boiler, we will measure the flow rate, temperature, and pressure of the streams entering and leaving the boiler. We will use steam table to look up the enthalpy of water at those states.Ultimately, we will evaluate the success of the project on the demonstration of a successful pilot facility that brings in customers and allows us to become a successful business. To do this, we will continue to reach out to customers and develop relationships with farmers, distributors, and industrial players in agriculture.