RestartNH3 - Energy functional processes and materials for storage of renewable energy in ammonia

When Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber received their Nobel prize for the discovery of the artificial nitrogen fixation process (the Haber-Bosch process), they acknowledged that there might be other ways of producing ammonia. Over a century later, we are still using the same fossil fuel-dependent process and a very similar catalyst. Now, the time has arrived to restart the role of ammonia beyond feeding over 50 % of the population as fertiliser. In a carbon-free society, ammonia (with a high energy density and a well-established transport infrastructure) is anticipated to be the lynchpin for the long-term storage of renewable energy to align its production with our energy demands. RestartNH3 will provide a ground-breaking recycle-less ammonia synthesis process, driven exclusively by renewable energy, water and air. Its fundamental pillars will be the development of energy functional nano-materials as low temperature ammonia catalysts and high temperature absorbents. Innovative technological advances will build on these revolutionary capabilities through the pioneering integration of the reaction and separation steps into a recycle-less process as well as a self-sustained, energy-efficient regeneration of absorbents via a unique heat integration strategy. RestartNH3 will deliver an agile (fast response), efficient (high energy storage), distributed (low capital versus the economy of scale of the conventional Haber Bosch process) ammonia synthesis process aligned to the intermittent and geographically isolated production of renewable energy. As a result, we will be able to store renewable energy in their production points, to be stored long-term and transported in the form of ammonia. Such a process has the potential to create a new global carbon-free energy trade system similar to the existing one around fossil fuels, essential to fulfil our carbon-free ambitions and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.