Research Update: The nitride route to ammonia fertilizers: decoupling food and fossil fuel

A new three-year project at Kansas State University, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences (U.S. DOE Office of Science, Award No. DE-SC0016453, "Step Catalysis to Synthesize Fossil-Free Ammonia at Atmospheric Pressure"), with $598,866 pursues ammonia for fertilizers produced from renewable resources with a new simple and rugged process. The team of Principal Investigator Dr. Peter Pfromm (Chemical Engineering), and co-Principal Investigators Dr.'s Bin Liu (Chemical Engineering) and Viktor Chikan (Chemistry) and their graduate students are investigating forming metal nitrides from metal alloy nanoparticles to activate nitrogen from air, and then synthesizing ammonia in a second step, all at atmospheric pressure and moderate temperatures. The recent precipitous decline in the cost of renewable electricity allows the needed hydrogen to be made by electrolysis of water so that the entire process is essentially fossil fuel free, economically competitive with fossil fuel based ammonia, and proceeds under conditions that will allow down-scaling and operation on stranded or intermittent renewable electricity

Die Stadt als Parkplatz

Eric Pfromm beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, was eine lebenswerte Stadt ist und wie sie gestaltet sein bzw. werden muss, um dem sich stetig wandelnden, globalisierten und flexibilisierten Leben gerecht zu werden. Die Konzeptualisierung eines solchen Lebensraums fängt seiner Meinung nach beim Planen und Bauen von Wohnraum in der Stadt an und mündet im Designen von öffentlichem Stadtraum. Dies wird Stadtplaner sowie Designer vor immense Herausforderungen stellen. Eric Pfromm deals with the question of what a city worth living in is and how it will have to be designed in order to adjust adequately to constantly changing, globalised and dynamic life. In his opinion, the conceptualization of an environment like that starts with the planning and building of living space in the city and necessitates the design of public urban space. This, he predicts, will pose immense challenges to urban planners and designers

Preview of a detailed techno-economic analysis of diesel from algae: economic feasibility under sustainability constraints requires sustained unrealistically high algae yields if public subsidies are absent.

A detailed economical analysis of producing algae-derived biodiesel via open-pond aquaculture has been performed and is in peer-review for publication. The results of the economical analysis confirm the critical limitation of economic feasibility by achievable and fundamentally plausible biomass yields

Activating dinitrogen for chemical looping ammonia Synthesis: Mn nitride layer growth modeling

The earth-abundant transition metal manganese (Mn) has been shown to activate dinitrogen (N2) and store nitrogen (N) as nitride for subsequent chemical reaction, for example, to produce ammonia (NH3). Chemical looping ammonia synthesis (CLAS) is a practical way to use Mn nitride by contacting nitride with gaseous hydrogen (H2) to produce ammonia (NH3). Here, the dynamic process of N atoms penetrating into solid Mn has been investigated. Nitride layer growth was modeled to quantitate and predict the storage of activated N in Mn towards designing CLAS systems. The N diffusion coefficient (DN) and reaction rate constant K for the first-order nitridation reaction were estimated at 6.2 ± 5.5 × 10-11 m2/s and 4.1 ± 3.5 × 10-4 1/s, respectively, at atmospheric pressure and 700 °C. Assuming spherical particles of Mn with a diameter of < 10 μm, about 56.8 metric tons of Mn is sufficient to produce a metric ton of NH3 per day using CLAS

Rational design of metal nitride redox materials for solar-driven ammonia synthesis

Fixed nitrogen is an essential chemical building block for plant and animal protein, which makes ammonia (NH3) a central component of synthetic fertilizer for the global production of food and biofuels. A global project on artificial photosynthesis may foster the development of production technologies for renewable NH3 fertilizer, hydrogen carrier and combustion fuel. This article presents an alternative path for the production of NH3 from nitrogen, water, and solar energy. The process is based on a thermochemical redox cycle driven by concentrated solar process heat at 700-1200°C that yields NH3 via the oxidation of a metal nitride with water. The metal nitride is recycled via solar-driven reduction of the oxidized redox material with nitrogen at atmospheric pressure. We employ electronic structure theory for the rational high-throughput design of novel metal nitride redox materials and to show how transition-metal doping controls the formation and consumption of nitrogen vacancies in metal nitrides. We confirm experimentally that iron doping of manganese nitride increases the concentration of nitrogen vacancies compared to no doping. The experiments are rationalized through the average energy of the dopant d-states, a descriptor for the theory-based design of advanced metal nitride redox materials to produce sustainable solar thermochemical ammonia

Sustainability of algae derived biodiesel: A mass balance approach

A rigorous chemical engineering mass balance/unit operations approach is applied here to bio-diesel from algae mass culture. An equivalent of 50,000,000 gallons per year (0.006002 m3/s) of petroleum-based Number 2 fuel oil (US, diesel for compression–ignition engines, about 0.1% of annual US consumption) from oleaginous algae is the target. Methyl algaeate and ethyl algaeate diesel can according to this analysis conceptually be produced largely in a technologically sustainable way albeit at a lower available diesel yield. About 11 square miles of algae ponds would be needed with optimistic assumptions of 50 g biomass yield per day and m2 pond area. CO2 to foster algae growth should be supplied from a sustainable source such as a biomass-based ethanol production. Reliance on fossil-based CO2 from power plants or fertilizer production renders algae diesel non-sustainable in the long term

Economic feasibility of algal biodiesel under alternative public policies

The motivation for this research was to determine the influence of public policies on economic feasibility of producing algal biodiesel in a system that produced all its energy needs internally. To achieve this, a steady-state mass balance/unit operation system was modeled first. Open raceway technology was assumed for the production of algal feedstock, and the residual biomass after oil extraction was assumed fermented to produce ethanol for the transesterification process. The project assumed the production of 50 million gallons of biodiesel per year and using about 14% of the diesel output to supplement internal energy requirements. It sold the remainder biodiesel and ethanol as pure biofuels to maximize the rents from the renewable fuel standards quota system. Assuming a peak daily yield of 500 kg algal biomass (dry basis)/ha, the results show that production of algal biodiesel under the foregoing constraints is only economically feasible with direct and indirect public policy intervention. For example, the renewable fuel standards' tracking RIN (Renewable fuel Identification Number) system provides a treasury-neutral value for biofuel producers as does the reinstatement of the renewable fuel tax credit. Additionally, the capital costs of an integrated system are such that some form of capital cost grant from the government would support the economic feasibility of the algal biodiesel production

Chemical Looping of Manganese to Synthesize Ammonia at Atmospheric Pressure: Sodium as Promoter

Affordable synthetic ammonia (NH3) enables the production of nearly half of the food we eat and is emerging as a renewable energy carrier. Sodium-promoted chemical looping NH3 synthesis at atmospheric pressure using manganese (Mn) is here demonstrated. The looping process may be advantageous when inexpensive renewable hydrogen from electrolysis is available. Avoiding the high pressure of the Haber-Bosch process by chemical looping using earth-abundant materials may reduce capital cost, facilitate intermittent operation, and allow operation in geographic areas where infrastructure is less sophisticated. At this early stage, the data suggest that 0.28 m3 of a 50 % porosity solid Mn bed may suffice to produce 100 kg NH3 per day by chemical looping, with abundant opportunities for improvement

Die Stadt als Parkplatz

Eric Pfromm beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, was eine lebenswerte Stadt ist und wie sie gestaltet sein bzw. werden muss, um dem sich stetig wandelnden, globalisierten und flexibilisierten Leben gerecht zu werden. Die Konzeptualisierung eines solchen Lebensraums fängt seiner Meinung nach beim Planen und Bauen von Wohnraum in der Stadt an und mündet im Designen von öffentlichem Stadtraum. Dies wird Stadtplaner sowie Designer vor immense Herausforderungen stellen.Eric Pfromm deals with the question of what a city worth living in is and how it will have to be designed in order to adjust adequately to constantly changing, globalised and dynamic life. In his opinion, the conceptualization of an environment like that starts with the planning and building of living space in the city and necessitates the design of public urban space. This, he predicts, will pose immense challenges to urban planners and designers

Tecnologia da educação e comunicação de massa

"O que é, então, esta tecnologia que constitui o instrumento supremo do progresso moderno? Embora o têrmo seja livremente usado na literatura corrente, sua significação como atualidade e potencialidade nunca foi explorada e definida. Na verdade, vão tão longe suas ramificações que a tarefa é difícil e incerta.