HEИндивидуална стипендия2022–2024

Eelctro-Ammonia · Combining catalysts design and reactor engineering to enhance the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia

„Хоризонт Европа“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2022-07-01 → 2024-06-30
Финансиране от ЕС: 230 774 €
Участници: 1
Схема: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Електрохимичният синтез на амоняк от азот и вода се изследва чрез нови катализатори и реактори, работещи при стайна температура. Това помага за намаляване на енергийните разходи и вредните емисии, като улеснява производството на торове в отдалечени райони.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Combining catalysts design and reactor engineering to enhance the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia

Ammonia is crucial for making fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals, and it's also seen as a potential carbon-free fuel for energy storage due to its high hydrogen content. Currently, ammonia is produced mainly through the Haber-Bosch process, which, while revolutionary, is extremely energy-intensive, requiring high temperatures and pressures. This method consumes about 1-2% of the world’s energy and produces over 1% of global CO2 emissions. Our project aims to create a more sustainable way to produce ammonia using an electrochemical process that operates at room temperature and pressure. The electrochemical ammonia synthesis directly from nitrogen and water, powered by renewable energy, would enable distributed ammonia production in smaller-scale devices, which would bring tremendous economic and social advantages, such as decreasing the price of fertilizer in developing countries and remote areas lacking transportation networks or infrastructure and realizing a neutral carbon footprint. By developing and scaling up this technology, we hope to make ammonia production greener and more efficient, helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the chemical industry and supporting global efforts to combat climate change.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

In 2020, the total global production of ammonia is up to 144 million metric tons via the Haber-Bosch process that is energy-intensive in that it requires a substantial driving force (e.g. 500 oC and 200 atm) to break the highly inert N-N triple bond, which consumes 1-2% of the worlds annual energy output and generates over 1% of global carbon dioxide emissions. The electrochemical nitrogen (N2) reduction reaction (NRR) has attracted much attention to circumvent the carbon-intensive Haber-Bosch process because of the decreasing renewable electricity prices. In contrast to the Haber-Bosch process that produces ammonia in large and centralized factories, the electrocatalytic route can achieve on-site ammonia synthesis in small-scale devices with the expectation to reduce the price of fertilizer and realize a neutral carbon footprint. However, electrochemical ammonia synthesis suffers from extremely low partial current density and Faradaic efficiency towards ammonia in aqueous conditions due to the competition of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). There are two challenges to NRR in aqueous conditions: (1) the HER competitive reaction is much faster than NRR in kinetics and the activation of N2 is therefore difficult, (2) low solubility of N2 in aqueous electrolytes. To overcome the challenges mentioned above, in this project, I aim to combine electrocatalysts design (i.e. suppress the HER and activate N2) and electrochemical reactor engineering (i.e. overcome the mass transport limits of N2) to improve the ammonia yield rates and current efficiency. Theory-guided preparation of singe-atom catalysts and diluted surface alloy will be performed in flow-cell/MEA electrolyzers (i.e. designed three different setups) to obtain a clear structure-activity relationship with the assistance of in-situ spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. The obtained structure-activity relationship could guide the rational development of high-performance catalysts for efficient NRR.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET · Kongens LyngbyКоординаторДания