Achievement

Ammonia is the basis for modern agriculture and may allow extended bio-fuel production in the near future. However, ammonia production’s dependency on natural gas has led to growing concerns regarding sustainable food production. The IGERT research group has published an analysis of the link of ammonia to the food versus fuel debate from a technical and economical perspective. Two processes for producing ammonia without natural gas but directly from water, air, and sunlight have been developed. Experimental validation and optimization has been completed. The economic sustainability of the processes has been evaluated through an integer linear program which determines optimal plant size and layout. NPV simulations and price sensitivity analyses have been used to quantify the dependency of plant construction and operation on the production rate and market price of ammonia.