This series of articles on the future of ammonia synthesis began with a report on the NH3 Energy+ conference presentation by Grigorii Soloveichik, Program Director at the US Department of Energy's ARPA-E, who categorized the technologies as being either improvements on Haber-Bosch or electrochemical (with exceptions). ARPA-E invests in "transformational, high-risk, early-stage research," and recently began funding ammonia synthesis technologies, not to make renewable fertilizer but to produce "energy-dense zero-carbon liquid fuel." This article will introduce the six electrochemical technologies currently in development with funding from ARPA-E.

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) will present a Webinar on December 21 on "Distributed Ammonia Synthesis." The presenter will be Edward L. Cussler, Distinguished Institute Professor at the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department of the University of Minnesota. Distributed ammonia synthesis is one focus related to ammonia energy at the University of Minnesota - but just one. In fact, UMinn is the locus of a unique and globally significant collection of research efforts that promise to have significant impacts in the ammonia industry and the broader energy sector.

The effects of direct injection of gaseous ammonia on the combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions of a spark-ignition engine were investigated. Port-injection gasoline was used to enhance the burning of ammonia that was directly injected into the engine cylinder. Appropriate direct injection strategies were developed to allow ammonia to be used in spark-ignition engines without sacrifice of volumetric efficiency. Experimental results show that with gasoline providing the baseline power, total engine power increased as the injection timing of ammonia was advanced and the injection duration was increased. Engine performance with use of gasoline-ammonia was compared to that with gasoline alone.…

Update on Ammonia Engine Combustion Using Direct Fuel Injection Song-Charng Kong, Iowa State University

Ammonia Combustion with Near-Zero Pollutant Emissions Terrence Meyer, Praveen Kumar, Kyle Redfern, and Daniel Diaz, Iowa State University

Transition-Metal Catalyzed Reduction of Nitrogen to Ammonia Andreja Bakac, Aaron Sadow, Oleg Pestovsky, and Barun Jana, Iowa State University

Performance of a Compression-Ignition Engine Using Direct Injection of Liquid Ammonia/DME Mixture Song-Charng Kong, Iowa State University

Update on Ammonia Engine Development Using Direct Fuel Injection Matthias Veltman and S-C Kong, Iowa State University

Ammonia Combustion with Near-Zero Pollutant Emissions Praveen Kumar, Kyle Redfern, Daniel Diaz, and Terrence Meyer, Iowa State University

Transition-Metal Catalyzed Reduction of Nitrogen to Ammonia Andreja Bakac, Aaron Sadow, Oleg Pestovsky and Barun Jana, Iowa State University

Combustion of Ammonia for Reduced CO2 in Heating and Power Generation Systems Terrence Meyer, Iowa State University

Transition-Metal Catalyzed Reduction of Nitrogen to Ammonia Andreja Bakac, Iowa State University

NH3 Diesel Update — Fuel Injection Strategies Matthias Veltman and Song Charng Kong, Iowa State University

An Economic and Energy Analysis of Ammonia Production from Conventional and Renewable Energy Sources Jeff Bartels, Iowa State University

Combustion Efficiency and Exhaust Emissions of Ammonia Combustion in Diesel Engines Song-Charng Kong, Iowa State University

Demonstrate Ammonia Combustion in Diesel Engine Song C. Kong, Iowa State University