Novel process of solarthermal production of ammonia solely from air and water

Kurzfassung

The yearly demand for cereals for both, food and animal feeding, is projected to reach some 3 billion tonnes by 2050, up from today’s nearly 2.1 billion tonnes [1]. Food production is strongly associated with the use of synthetic fertilizers that mainly rely on ammonia which, up to now, is produced almost exclusively from fossil fuels in the Haber-Bosch process [2]. With a global production capacity of almost 200 million tonnes per year, ammonia is the most produced chemical substance. Facing fossil fuel depletion and upcoming CO2-emission goals, on the one hand, and increasing ammonia consumption due to global population growth and biomassbased fuels, on the other hand, emphasize the demand of a sustainable way to produce ammonia that solely relies on renewable energy sources. We propose a novel process that produces the precursors nitrogen and hydrogen solely from air and water, respectively, using solar heat.