Ammonia Production for Fertilizers at Ambient Pressure and Low Temperature

Ammonia (NH3) is an extremely important feedstockfor producing nitrogen fertilizers, such as that provide essential nutrition for crop vitality. The worldwide production of ammonia is more than 100 million tons per year. The conventional Haber-Bosch ammonia production process requires high pressure and temperature (up to 300 atm and 500 & deg;C) and is, as such, extremely energy-intensive. This program proposes to develop electrochemical synthesis of ammonia at low temperature and pressure.Novel nanostructured electrocatalysts will be further developed to promote theammonia production rate. Process conditions including temperature, operating current, and reactant impurities will be optimized to maximize the ammonia production rate and efficiency. These efforts may help transform the electrochemical production of ammonia to a more practical level. The proposed program enables synthesis of ammonia at low temperature and pressure. The successful application of this technology will lead to ammonia synthesis via a more environment-benign and energy-efficient approach, compared to the conventional Haber-Bosch process.