Sustainable Production of Ammonia solely using Solar Power, Water, and Air

Abstract

A process is proposed capable to produce ammonia solely from sun, water and air and therewith promising to replace the million-ton consumption of natural gas with solar production of hydrogen and nitrogen. While several routes for solar hydrogen production were important research subjects for decades, an innovative and sustainable nitrogen generation is still missing. Our approach to produce nitrogen is based on a novel air separation: a thermochemical cycle based on a redox material driven thermally by concentrated solar radiation. The results of the redox material, which was carried using numerical methods and experimentally with a TGA, will be discussed as well as the results of modelling key components and the description of the entire process.