Progress 06/01/14 to 07/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:USDA, DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) and major ammonia industries are our target audiences. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We presented the results in the 228th ECS Meeting (October 11-13, 2015, Phoenix, AZ): "Ion ExchangeMembrane Based Ammonia Synthesis" under symposium F03: Membrane-based Electrochemical Separation. The presentation was well-received by the audience with many positive comments. We also reported the significance of electrochemical ammonia synthesis in DOE's workshop "Advanced, High Performance Catalysis Workshop," Sponsored by the Advanced Manufacturing Office &Fuel Cell Technologies Office, September 9 - 10, 2015 in Houston, TX. In this workshop, a consensus has been reached that conventional ammonia synthesis is very energy intensive and electrochemical synthesis of ammonia may provide an approach to reducing the energy consumption for the ammonia synthesis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We are approaching the main participants in the ammonia market - including CF Industries (Illinois, USA), Koch Fertilizer (Kansas, USA), Terra Industries (Iowa, USA), The Mosaic Company (Florida, USA), Agrium (Canada), Potash Corp. (Saskatchewan, Canada), and BASF (Germany) - to determine their level of interest in securing a license, which would most likely give them an edge in ammonia production. These licenses may allow them to claim a carbon-neutral ammonia manufacturing method, which will inevitably bring government tax breaks and even carbon credits to bear. In this way, we believe our technology will enable an attractive price structure, at the same time allowing producers to get substantial good public relations exposure and increased brand equity. Particularly, we are in the process of discussing this technology with Potash Corp. and Koch Fertilizer, two of the world's largest fertilizer companies by capacity, regarding possible commercialization opportunities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is the final report. There will be no more reports for the Phase I project. If the project can be advanced to Phase II, however, the ammonia production rate can be enhanced by 2 orders of magnitude via combining high-performance catalysts and high-temperature anion-exchange membranes.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We have successfully validated electrochemical ammonia synthesis under ambient pressure and low temperatures. We have identified electrocatalysts for ammonia synthesis that improved the ammonia production rate by 8 times compared to reported results in the literature. We have also developed strategies to help to stabilize the ammonia production, thus significantly reducing rate decay.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Xu, H, T. McCallum, and S.S. Kocha, Ion Exchange Membrane Based Ammonia Synthesis, presented in the symposium F03-Membrane-Based Electrochemical Synthesis, Abstract 969, at the 228th ECS Meeting, Phoenix, October 2015.
|
Progress 06/01/14 to 05/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:USDA, DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) and major ammonia industries are our target audiences. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We are approaching the main participants in the ammonia market - including CF Industries (Illinois, USA), Koch Fertilizer (Kansas, USA), Terra Industries (Iowa, USA), The Mosaic Company (Florida, USA), Agrium (Canada), Potash Corp. (Saskatchewan, Canada), and BASF (Germany) - to determine their level of interest in securing a license, which would most likely give them an edge in ammonia production. These licenses may allow them to claim a carbon-neutral ammonia manufacturing method, which will inevitably bring government tax breaks and even carbon credits to bear. In this way, we believe our technology will enable an attractive price structure, at the same time allowing producers to get substantial good public relations exposure and increased brand equity. Particularly, we are in the process of discussing this technology with Potash Corp. and Koch Fertilizer, two of the world's largest fertilizer companies by capacity, regarding possible commercialization opportunities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to further improve the ammonia production rate and stability by combining high-performance electro-catalysts and stable ion-exchange membranes. We also plan to analyze operations cost and capital cost for a typical ammonia plant that produces 1 million metric tons of ammonia/year based on electrochemical ammonia synthesis.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We have successfully validated electrochemical ammonia synthesis under ambient pressure and low temperatures. We have identified electrocatalysts for ammonia synthesis that improved the ammonia production rate by 8 times compared to reported results in the literature. We have also developed strategies to help to stabilize the ammonia production, thus significantly reducing rate decay.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Xu, H., and McCallum, T., Ammonia Production for Fertilizers at Ambient Pressure and Low Temperature, Interim Technical Report, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture Grant No. 2014-33610-21933, October 2014.
|
|