Advanced Catalyst Manufacturing Enabled by Direct Joule Heating

Ammonia synthesis reactions, enabled by the Haber-Bosch process, account for approximately 3% of the world’s total energy use. Here, we propose a cascade reactor with a sequence of catalyst compositions which are tailored to a specific stage of the synthesis reaction. The various catalyst compositions are enabled by our novel, direct joule heating process for synthesizing high entropy alloy nanoparticles. This method will produce ammonia synthesis catalysts that are more efficient per cycle and require significantly less energy and capital to operate.