{"id":21376,"date":"2022-05-13T11:08:46","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T10:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=21376"},"modified":"2022-05-13T11:51:42","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T10:51:42","slug":"harnessing-power-green-ammonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/harnessing-power-green-ammonia\/21376\/","title":{"rendered":"AmmPower: Harnessing the power of green ammonia"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ammonia (NH3<\/sub>) is a colourless chemical, yet it is often referenced to as being \u2018green\u2019, \u2018blue\u2019, or \u2018grey\u2019. When ammonia is created, hydrogen and nitrogen atoms are combined to form the ammonia product, NH3<\/sub>. The colour prefix refers to the energy source used to power the process, defines how the hydrogen was obtained, and represents the impact of any associated emissions.<\/p>\n The traditional grey ammonia synthesis process uses fossil fuels, primarily natural gas, as a feedstock to generate hydrogen through steam reforming \u2013 a carbon-intensive process by which the issue of associated upstream carbon emissions remains even if the ammonia reaction itself does not generate emissions. Blue ammonia is a similar process, however the carbon-related emissions are captured and stored or utilised elsewhere. In fact, 98% of ammonia plants around the world use fossil fuels as a feedstock to obtain hydrogen for the ammonia synthesis process, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).1<\/sup><\/p>\n Green ammonia, however, uses green hydrogen and green energy to power the synthesis process. For hydrogen to be green, it must be made without using fossil fuels or producing carbon-containing greenhouse gasses<\/a>. The most common method of obtaining clean hydrogen is through the electrolysis of water (H2<\/sub>O) which, simply put, is to send an electric current through water, thereby \u2018electrolyzing\u2019 it, to separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms.<\/p>\n Ammonia is the second most widely used inorganic chemical in the world. In 2020, 176 million tonnes of ammonia were produced, resulting in approximately 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) emissions.2<\/sup> Ammonia production accounted for 1.8% of all global CO2<\/sub> emissions that year, and 80% of these were from isolating the hydrogen required for ammonia synthesis.<\/p>\nAmmonia impact<\/h3>\n