3 ms·

Being able to use ammonia as a fuel to produce electricity is really neat to me because an ammonia fuel cell uses a liquid fuel, unlike a hydrogen fuel cell, an

• WalterBright 5y ago
  If ammonia is made from natural gas, what happens to the carbon?
  • ncmncm 5y ago
    Oxidized for heat to drive the process.
    • WalterBright 5y ago
      So it's still emitting the same CO2.
      • ncmncm 5y ago
        Anytime you are burning natural gas, you are emitting CO2. Is this surprising to you? NH3 has been made in exactly this way for the past century, in the millions of tons per year, and almost all still is. To make NH3 without natural gas, you use H2 produced electrically, typically by electrolysing water, venting O2. It also typically needs heat, also supplied electrically, and a catalyst to split the N2 double-bond so the H can worm in. There is a great deal of ongoing research improving catalysts, mostly discovering cheaper ones. An industrial-scale hydro-powered NH3 synthesis plant is under construction in Norway. We will need hundreds more like it. Norway and Paraguay have a great deal of surplus hydro power, so NH3 synthesis is a good fit. Small-scale NH3 synthesis using a wind turbine is also a good fit, for local use as fertilizer and farm-equipment fuel. It is a good way to use a wind turbine far from the electric grid. You bank NH3 whenever the wind blows. Tankage for surplus NH3 is cheap, and the neighbors can use as much extra of it as you can make.
        • WalterBright 5y ago
          > Is this surprising to you? No.
          • neltnerb 5y ago
            It sounds like all three of us are entirely aware that making ammonia requires hydrogen which comes from natural gas which releases CO2. That's why I said it was unfortunate that ammonia comes from fossil fuels in the first place.
            • ncmncm 5y ago
              But hydrogen does not, in fact, need to come from natural gas, and (therefore) neither does ammonia.
              • neltnerb 5y ago
                I'm very confused, why do you think we don't know this already? No one argued with your comment about electrolysis because everyone learned about it in middle school and using renewable energy for it is incredibly obvious. For some calibration of the qualifications of your peers on this site -- I did my postdoc in chemical engineering studying, in part, ammonia synthesis.
                • ncmncm 5y ago
                  You wrote, "making ammonia requires hydrogen which comes from natural gas", without qualification. You and Walter are not the only people reading. Some people need more background than you.