World-first discovery could fuel the new green ammonia economyhttps://phys.org/news/2021-06-world-first-discovery-fuel-green-ammonia.ampThe production of each metric ton of ammonia contributes to the emission of roughly 1.9 metric tons of carbon dioxide, and accounts for roughly 1.8 percent of global carbon emissions.
A team of Monash University scientists, led by Professor Doug MacFarlane, Dr. Bryan Suryanto and Dr. Alexandr Simonov, have discovered a process based on phosphonium salts that represents a breakthrough in overcoming this carbon-intensive problem.
The research, published in the prestigious journal Science, unlocks the potential to produce ammonia and fertilizers from renewable energy in reactors, as small as a refrigerator, that could be rolled out at the individual farm or community level.
Direct, zero-carbon ammonia synthesis methods currently being explored include the electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction, which can produce ammonia at room temperature and pressures from nothing more than air, water and renewable energy.
...
Professor MacFarlane, an internationally renowned chemist, believes the use of carbon-neutral production technologies could also see ammonia used as a fuel and replace fossil fuels by 2050.
Ammonia is already widely considered to be the ideal zero-carbon fuel for international shipping in the future, a market predicted to be worth more than USD$ 150 billion by 2025.
"The technology that we have developed also opens up a broad range of possibilities for future scale up to very large production facilities for export, attached to dedicated solar and wind farms," Professor MacFarlane said.