3 ms·
Places without enough sun in the winter, and without enough wind, too, sometimes, will just import power. You might be able to draw down on HVDC transmission li
by ncmncm 4y ago
Places without enough sun in the winter, and without enough wind, too, sometimes, will just import power. You might be able to draw down on HVDC transmission lines. But there will also be abundant solar farms in the tropics synthesizing ammonia for export. If the weather prediction says not enough wind, and your tanked ammonia would run low, and you can't book enough transmission line power, you just order a shipment, which will be substantially cheaper than NG, from anybody anywhere.
But you will have overbuilt a great deal of cheap solar capacity, because anytime it generates more than you can use, you can synthesize your own ammonia. First you fill your tanks, and then sell the rest.
In winter, the overbuild means you burn less of it. In summer, the excess ammonia will find an unlimited market because ammonia is so useful. It is fuel, it is fertilizer, it is refrigerant, it is feedstock for myriad chemical processes.
- pcdoodle 4y agoI had no idea ammonia had such properties, any recommended readings/video?
- Kim_Bruning 4y agohttps://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Ammonia-as-a-storage-solution-for-future-decarbonized-systems-EL-42.pdf https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2020/1... Pure hydrogen has some handling difficulties which might be solved by binding it to carbon (eg in Methane: CH_4), or to nitrogen (eg in Ammonia: NH_3). Ammonia production has as an advantage that nitrogen is available in large quantities in the earth's atmosphere (78%), and ammonia production and usage can therefore _theoretically_ be carbon-neutral (and in fact not involve carbon at all, ideally) Methane production has as an advantage that you can produce it using atmospheric carbon capture (pulling CO_2 from the air), which means it could theoretically contribute to reduction of greenhouse gasses. A downside of atmospheric carbon capture is that earth atmosphere CO_2 is fairly low (0.04%) . (note: Atmospheric CO_2 capture is also proposed for Mars ISRU (In-Situ resource utilization), which is one reason why SpaceX is using methane engines for its upcoming generation of (mars) rockets. There's some synergies / extra investments to be had in working on CO2 capture technologies) (note 2: Current modern methane and ammonia production/delivery tend to use fossil hydrocarbons as the hydrogen donor, rather than water electrolysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia_production#Modern_ammonia-producing_plants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia_production#Modern_ammo... )
- pcdoodle 4y agoThis seems like a gold mine! thanks for the info.
- konschubert 4y agoOne thing to note: CH_4 burns cleaner than NH_3.
- ncmncm 4y agoNot unless you are burning it with pure oxygen. Ammonia is injected into NG in gas turbines to scavenge N to stop NOx production: N is better at binding to N than to O. So, you just burn your NH3 slightly rich.
- ncmncm 4y agoAmmonia is liquid at room temperature under moderate pressure (~10 atm), so that is its usual form for storage and transport. Ammonia is favored as the refrigerant in industrial cooling systems, but not domestic or automotive for safety reasons. Ammonia may be burned in ordinary combined-cycle gas turbines and ship engines, requiring only new plumbing, because it corrodes some metals. The ship-building industry is already gearing up for the transition to ammonia fuel. Purely electrical synthesis production capacity will be low through 2026, because factories for synthesizers are still under construction.