(202c) Investigation into Thermochemical Looping Process for Sustainable Ammonia Production
AIChE Annual Meeting
2023
2023 AIChE Annual Meeting
Process Development Division
Decarbonization for Ammonia Production
Monday, November 6, 2023 - 4:30pm to 5:00pm
Investigation into thermochemical looping process for sustainable ammonia production
Grant Bauer and Rajesh Shende*
Karen M. Swindler Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
501 E. St. Joseph, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701
*Corresponding author email: Rajesh.Shende@sdsmt.edu" Rajesh.Shende@sdsmt.edu
Industrially, ammonia is produced by the Haber-Bosch (HB) process, which is energy and carbon
intensive. In the HB process, nitrogen and hydrogen react over a supported Fe catalyst. It is to be noted
that hydrogen at a large scale is still generated by the steam methane reforming (SMR) process, which is
not sustainable as it generates carbon dioxide. In recent years, researchers are developing low energy
and carbon intensity processes and investigating novel materials. A two-step chemical looping (CL)
process involves nitridation of metal oxide (step-1) followed hydrolysis of metal nitride (step-2) to
regenerate original metal oxide material. Typically, the metal oxide is regenerated at a lower
temperature with the introduction of steam for the nitride hydrolysis producing ammonia.. We
hypothesize that the use of binary or ternary mixture of transition metals (TM) oxide, can lower the
nitridation temperatures. Novel binary and ternary transition metal oxides were designed and
synthesized. A series of experiments are currently underway to understand efficacy of these materials
towards ammonia production at lower temperatures. Results obtained with the synthesis,
characterization and performance evaluation towards ammonia generation will be presented.
Grant Bauer and Rajesh Shende*
Karen M. Swindler Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
501 E. St. Joseph, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701
*Corresponding author email: Rajesh.Shende@sdsmt.edu" Rajesh.Shende@sdsmt.edu
Industrially, ammonia is produced by the Haber-Bosch (HB) process, which is energy and carbon
intensive. In the HB process, nitrogen and hydrogen react over a supported Fe catalyst. It is to be noted
that hydrogen at a large scale is still generated by the steam methane reforming (SMR) process, which is
not sustainable as it generates carbon dioxide. In recent years, researchers are developing low energy
and carbon intensity processes and investigating novel materials. A two-step chemical looping (CL)
process involves nitridation of metal oxide (step-1) followed hydrolysis of metal nitride (step-2) to
regenerate original metal oxide material. Typically, the metal oxide is regenerated at a lower
temperature with the introduction of steam for the nitride hydrolysis producing ammonia.. We
hypothesize that the use of binary or ternary mixture of transition metals (TM) oxide, can lower the
nitridation temperatures. Novel binary and ternary transition metal oxides were designed and
synthesized. A series of experiments are currently underway to understand efficacy of these materials
towards ammonia production at lower temperatures. Results obtained with the synthesis,
characterization and performance evaluation towards ammonia generation will be presented.