Novel technique seamlessly converts ammonia to 'green' hydrogen

Date:
August 11, 2021
Source:
Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology(UNIST)
Summary:
A recent study has announced a breakthrough in technology that
efficiently converts liquid ammonia into hydrogen.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A research team, led by Professor Guntae Kim in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST has announced a breakthrough in technology
that efficiently converts liquid ammonia into hydrogen. Their findings
have also attracted significant attention from academic research
communities owing to its new analysis protocol, capable of finding
optimal process environments.


==========================================================================
In this study, the research team succeeded in producing green hydrogen
(H2) in large quantities with a purity of nearly 100 percent by
decomposing liquid ammonia (NH3) into electricity. Besides, according
to the research team, such method consumed three times less power than
hydrogen made using electrolysis of water.

Ammonia has emerged as an attractive potential hydrogen carrier due to its extremely high energy density, and ease of storage and handling. Moreover,
the electrolysis of ammonia to produce nitrogen and hydrogen only requires
an external voltage of 0.06 V theoretically, which is much lower than the energy needed for water electrolysis (1.23 V), noted the research team.

In this study, the research team propose a well-established procedure
using in operando gas chromatography that enables us to reliably compare
and evaluate the new catalyst for ammonia oxidation. According to the
research team, with the protocol, they could distinguish in detail the competitive oxidation reaction between the ammonia oxidation and oxygen evolutionreactions with real- time monitoring.

With the use of flower-like electrodeposited Pt catalyst, researchers
have efficiently produced hydrogen with less power consumption of 734 LH2
kW h?1, which is significantly lower than that of the water-splitting
process (242 LH2 kW h?1). "The use of this rigorous protocol should
help to evaluate the practical performances for ammonia oxidation, thus enabling the field to focus on viable pathways towards the practical electrochemical oxidation of ammonia to hydrogen," noted the research
team.

This study has been co-authored by Minzae Lee, Myung-gi Seo, Hyung-Ki Min,
and Youngheon Choi from Lotte Chemical R&D Center, respectively. Their
work has also been featured on the inside back cover of Journal of
Material Chemistry A, which was made available online in March 2021
ahead of final publication in May 2021. This research has been carried
out with the support of Lotte Chemical, Ministry of Science and ICT
(MSIT), and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF).

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Ulsan_National_Institute_of_Science_and_Technology (UNIST). Original
written by JooHyeon Heo. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Yejin Yang, Jeongwon Kim, Hyoi Jo, Arim Seong, Minzae Lee,
Hyung-Ki Min,
Myung-gi Seo, Youngheon Choi, Guntae Kim. A rigorous electrochemical
ammonia electrolysis protocol with in operando quantitative
analysis.

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2021; 9 (19): 11571 DOI: 10.1039/
D1TA00363A ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210811162912.htm

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