Decentralized generation technology for green ammonia

In addi­tion to the future import of the hydrogen carrier ammonia, decen­tra­lized ammonia plants are needed that can effi­ci­ently produce green ammonia from fluc­tua­ting rene­wable energy on a small to medium scale. In the future, ammonia farms can cover peak loads and achieve economic opera­tion at an inter­me­diate number of full-load hours of use. In addi­tion, a higher secu­rity of supply and inde­pen­dence from imports can be achieved. In the CAMPFIRE imple­men­ta­tion project, a new type of ammonia farming system for plant outputs of up to 150 MWel is being deve­loped in a subpro­ject of the part­ners Zentrum für Brenn­stoff­zel­len­Technik (ZBT), Karls­ruher Institut für Tech­no­logie (KIT), Univer­sität Rostock, Leibniz Institut für Plas­ma­for­schung und Tech­no­logie (INP) and the auto­ma­tis­a­tion & soft­ware GmbH. For this purpose, a Haber-Bosch reactor is being deve­loped which, with the aid of a falling tempe­ra­ture profile, enables the effi­cient conver­sion of nitrogen and hydrogen to ammonia at lower pres­sures than in current large-scale plants. In addi­tion, new cata­lysts are being used that have a precious metal content, but this is being reduced through inno­va­tive core-shell approa­ches in order to strive for cost reduc­tion. To gene­rate them, the part­ners deve­loped a new synthesis process based on the appli­ca­tion of an atmo­spheric plasma in liquid starting mate­rials such as salt solu­tions and ethanol (PiL — Plasma-in-Liquid). In this process, cata­lyst suspen­sions can now be gene­rated within minutes. The part­ners fulfilled an important mile­stone of the subpro­ject by successfully comple­ting a first plant design for an ammonia farm for an elec­trical power of 15 kW for the conver­sion of 500 g H2 into NH3 per hour. This design will serve as the basis for the upsca­ling and imple­men­ta­tion of the reactor for an output of 200 kWel in the follo­wing project phase.