Development and investigation of an ammonia synthesis reactor

Ammonia production has gained increasing attention in the last decade due to its importance as a feedstock and an energy carrier. In the present thesis study, two novel ammonia production systems are presented. The first experimental system is a lab scale electromagnetic induced ammonia synthesis reactor. The reactor is designed, built and tested under various conditions. The Faraday efficiency of the reactor is 5.4 % and the ammonia production capacity is 1.2×10-10 mol/cm2.s. Furthermore, the experiments on ammonia synthesis are performed with EMF and without EMF on the reactor and the change in potential is recorded to be 1.7 V and 1.1 V respectively. The second theoretical system is a new integrated energy system for power, steam and ammonia production developed, simulated through Aspen Plus and assessed thermodynamically through energy and exergy approaches. The present system employs a novel ammonia production loop to potentially replace the conventional Haber-Bosch process by integrating an expander/turbine in the ammonia loop. The ammonia production system produces 2310 kmol/h of liquid ammonia and steam as a by-product. Although having optimum conversion rate is attained by controlling/shifting the volume of synthesized ammonia, interestingly the exergetic assessment shows that the best output ammonia product is attained by the performance of each independent cycle. Hence, the overall exergy efficiency of the integrated system is 83 % and turbine exergy efficiency of 91 % for optimal operating conditions with a total power of 6000 kW and ammonia conversion rate of 38 % respectively.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Chehade, Ghassan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dincer, Ibrahim

• Ammonia
• Efficiency
• Electrochemical
• Electromagnetic
• Energy

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10155/953

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ontariotechu.scholaris.ca:10155/953