Chemical looping of metal nitride catalysts: low-pressure ammonia synthesis for energy storage.

ABSTRACT: The activity of many heterogeneous catalysts is limited by strong correlations between activation energies and adsorption energies of reaction intermediates. Although the reaction is thermodynamically favourable at ambient temperature and pressure, the catalytic synthesis of ammonia (NH₃), a fertilizer and chemical fuel, from N₂ and H₂ requires some of the most extreme conditions of the chemical industry. We demonstrate how ammonia can be produced at ambient pressure from air, water, and concentrated sunlight as renewable source of process heat via nitrogen reduction with a looped metal nitride, followed by separate hydrogenation of the lattice nitrogen into ammonia. Separating ammonia synthesis into two reaction steps introduces an additional degree

SUBMITTER: Michalsky R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5707470 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature