Ammonia

Ammonia is a colorless, pungent gas with the chemical formula NH3. It is a naturally occurring compound that plays an important role in the nitrogen cycle and is used as a building block in the production of fertilizers, plastics, and other chemicals. It is also used as a refrigerant and cleaning agent.Stanford researchers have found an environmentally friendly method of producing ammonia using small droplets of water and nitrogen sourced from the air.Ammonia (NH3) serves as the foundation for the creation of chemical…

<!----> The Amogy ammonia FCV tractor SK Innovation said it had led a recent US$139m Series B-1 fundraising round for Amogy, which it described as a pioneer in the development of emissions free, ammonia powered fuel cell systems based in the US. The South Korean oil refiner, and parent company of…

In the race to find cleaner fuels, the heavy duty transportation sector is woefully behind because batteries don't have enough juice to power trucks and ships. Enter ammonia. New technology and new companies are working on turning ammonia into hydrogen to power tractors, trucks and even ships.The heavy duty trucking industry alone accounts for almost a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. Emissions from shipping increased nearly 10% from 2012 to 2018, according to the International Maritime…

A cross-section through a porous metal-organic framework, showing the copper atoms (orange) that are constrained in a rigid structure by organic linker molecules, cyclohexanedicarboxylate, that contain oxygen (red) and carbon (gray). Ammonia cleaves the copper-oxygen bonds in this 3D framework, causing it to transform into a one-dimensional polymer. The porous, 3D framework then reassembles itself as ammonia is driven off. Credit: Jeffrey Long lab, UC BerkeleyNew <span class="glossaryLink"…

A team of researchers has published a new method for obtaining ammonia in the journal Angewandte Chemie. This method, which uses reactive boron compounds to convert atmospheric nitrogen to ammonium chloride with the addition of an acid, is much milder than the traditional Haber-Bosch process and does not require the use of energy-intensive hydrogen gas or metals. This conversion can be carried out in solution at room temperature, making it a more environmentally friendly and efficient alternative for producing…

If all the major green ammonia projects on our shortlist are completed on schedule, their combined production total will be more than half of today's global ammonia industry by the mid-2030s – eliminating nearly 1% of global carbon dioxide emissions.Ammonia (NH3) is a critically important chemical, and it's produced at a huge rate – about 150 million tons per year. About 70% of that is used as agricultural fertilizer, but it's also used in pharmaceuticals and cleaning products. It's also being evaluated as a potential…

A fundamental breakthrough in chemistry promises to unlock ammonia as a clean fuel, and it could help decarbonize the entire chemical industry in the process. Rice University researchers have created a small, LED-powered device that converts ammonia to hydrogen on the fly. It uses a light-driven catalyst that's as efficient as expensive thermal catalysts that need thousand-degree temperatures to operate, and it's made from cheap, abundant copper and iron. And it's only the beginning of a technology that could radically…

Schematic diagram of ammonia synthesis by electrocatalysis with bimetallic Fe–Co single-atom catalyst. Credit: Shengbo ZhangScientists have demonstrated the use of controllably synthesized single-<span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>atom</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>An atom is the smallest component of an element. It is made up of protons and neutrons within the nucleus, and electrons circling the…

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. What does GPT-3 “know” about me? One of the biggest stories in tech this year has been the rise of large language models (LLMs). These are AI models that produce text a human might have written—sometimes so convincingly they have tricked people into thinking they are sentient. These models’ power comes from troves of publicly available human-created text that has…

The American Bureau of Shipping, which sets safety standards for global shipping, recently granted early-stage approval for some ammonia-powered ships and fueling infrastructure, including a design from Samsung Heavy Industries, one of the world’s largest shipbuilders. Such ships could hit the seas within the next few years, as several companies have promised deliveries in 2024. While the fuel would require new engines and new fueling systems, swapping it in for fossil fuels that ships burn today could help make a…