A Green Approach to Making Ammonia Could Help Feed the World

UCF research team with collaborators at Virginia Tech have developed a new “green” approach to making ammonia that may help make feeding the rising world population more sustainable. “This new approach can facilitate ammonia production using renewable energy, such as electricity generated from solar or wind,” said physics Assistant Professor Xiaofeng Feng. “Basically, this new approach can help advance a sustainable development of our human society.”Ammonia, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, is essential to all life on the planet and is a vital ingredient in most fertilizers used for food production. Since World War I, the ammonia in fertilizer has been primarily produced using the Haber-Bosch method, which is energy and fossil-fuel intensive. There have been substantial obstacles to improving the process, until now.The research team’s new approach is documented in the Nature Communications Journal. The biggest obstacle to ammonia synthesis is the high energy barrier to activate nitrogen molecules. In order for the chemical process to hit a high reaction rate, nitrogen and hydrogen molecules must be heated to a temperature of 662 to 1,022 oF under a pressure of 2,200−5,100 pounds per square inch with the presence of iron-based catalysts. Translation: The chemical reaction only happens under very high temperature and pressure conditions.