Hyundai Motor recently started demonstrating the technology of ‘liquid ammonia’. It is a demonstration of ‘cracking technology’ that imports liquefied ammonia imported from Australia and extracts hydrogen used in hydrogen electric vehicles again. Cracking is a technology that produces hydrogen by decomposing ammonia ( NH ₃), a compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, at high temperatures. Hyundai Motor Company is growing its pie in the global hydrogen-powered vehicle market with the hydrogen-powered vehicle model ‘Nexo’.
Kiyoung Koo, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (hereinafter referred to as Egiyeon), said at the ‘3rd Green Ammonia International Conference’ held at the Westin Chosun in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 24th sponsored by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Egiyeon, “Egiyeon and Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Hyundai Motor “We will cooperate with Samsung Engineering and Lotte Chemical in the future to promote mass production of ammonia using cracking technology.” said.
Ammonia, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen that smells “nasty”, has recently emerged as a renewable energy carrier that will save humanity. Once used as a raw material for fertilizer, it was a substance that caused an agricultural revolution, but now it is considered one of the means to solve the decarbonization homework around the world. It is paying attention to ‘green ammonia’ as a key means to produce, transport, and introduce eco-friendly energy ‘hydrogen’ most efficiently. Green ammonia refers to ammonia produced by producing green hydrogen in conjunction with renewable energy without emitting carbon dioxide and using it.
Ammonia is considered one of the most effective means of storing and transporting hydrogen overseas as it can utilize existing global supply chains and infrastructure. The key here is synthesis and disassembly technology. The scientific world is paying attention to ammonia synthesis and decomposition technology using ‘low temperature and low pressure’ technology.
Countries such as the United States, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Australia are also setting up their own policies and investing in related technology development.
Attention is paid to ammonia ‘synthesis’ and ‘decomposition’ technologies for hydrogen transport
Ammonia ( NH ₃) , composed of nitrogen and hydrogen, has been regarded as one of the innovative chemical raw materials in the chemical industry such as fertilizer, textile washing, and pharmaceuticals for a century. In 1908, German chemist Fritz Haber developed the Haber Bosch method, a method for synthesizing ammonia by reacting nitrogen and hydrogen using a catalyst under conditions of high temperature and high pressure. By applying this technology, mass production of ammonia, which is used in nitrogen fertilizer, was able to solve human food culture.
Ammonia, which was mainly used in fertilizers in the past, has recently attracted attention as a hydrogen carrier with high energy density in the same volume. It is rapidly emerging as an alternative solution to overcome the climate crisis by not emitting carbon.
The reason why ammonia emerged as the main carrier of hydrogen can be seen through its chemical symbol. Ammonia is a substance synthesized from nitrogen and hydrogen through a chemical reaction. When ammonia is cracked (decomposed), hydrogen and nitrogen are generated, and this nitrogen is discharged into the air and the remaining hydrogen is used as an energy source.
Hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water is a clean energy source in itself, but has the disadvantage of being difficult to transport. Hydrogen itself is bulky and explosive, so it is liquefied at an extremely low temperature of about -253 degrees Celsius. The cost of transporting and storing this liquefied hydrogen is expensive. On the other hand, ammonia can save about 30% or more compared to transporting and storing it in the form of liquid hydrogen. It is easy to transport, store, and store in a liquid state even at about -33 degrees Celsius. Liquefied ammonia can store up to 1.5 to 2 times more hydrogen than liquid hydrogen. Even if ammonia is produced from hydrogen and ammonia is cracked (decomposed) into hydrogen, the production cost per kg is reduced.
The new ammonia synthesis and decomposition technology is the field that the scientific world is most interested in. Recently, scientists are paying attention to a low-temperature and low-pressure ammonia synthesis technology that overcomes the limitations of the Haber Bosch method. Ammonia is produced by reacting hydrogen produced from fossil fuels with nitrogen in the air at high temperatures and pressures, which releases a lot of carbon dioxide and consumes a lot of energy. This is why research on the ammonia eco-friendly process that synthesizes ammonia at low temperature and low pressure is being actively conducted.
Hideo Hosono, professor emeritus at Tokyo Institute of Technology, a world-renowned scholar in the field of materials, said, “Synthesizing ammonia using hydrogen without carbon emissions under mild conditions (low temperature and low atmospheric pressure) is the biggest challenge in the field of chemistry.” In the low-pressure synthesis, a high-performance and expensive ruthenium ( Ru ) catalyst was mainly used, but hydrogen ‘ poisoning ‘) phenomenon, there were limitations such as suppression of nitrogen activation and high price.”
Professor Hosono explained, “Recent technology is developing a catalyst for high-performance ammonia synthesis as an eco-friendly alternative catalyst that implements a low-temperature, low-pressure environment that requires less energy when synthesizing ammonia and has chemical robustness for nitrogen activation.” did. In 2020, Professor Hosono’s team disclosed in the international journal Nature that they had developed a new technique for producing ammonia using lanthanum nitride ( LaN ) combined with nickel ( Ni ) nanoparticles . Korea also developed a high-performance catalyst for ammonia synthesis under low-temperature and low-pressure conditions. KAIST Department of Biochemical Engineering Professor Minki Choi and Department of Chemistry Professor Hyungjun Kim developed a high-performance catalyst with high ammonia synthesis activity even under low-temperature and low-pressure conditions by identifying the operating mechanism of an alkaline earth metal cocatalyst. This research was supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Research and the Mid-level Researcher Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea. The joint research team succeeded in identifying the principle by which the interfacial structure of the barium oxide cocatalyst and the ruthenium catalyst on a magnesium oxide catalyst support is systematically controlled. As a result of analyzing the catalyst in parallel with various interfacial analysis methods and calculations that were not used in previous studies, it was found that the effect of enhancing the catalytic activity of barium oxide occurs when hydrogen is adsorbed on ruthenium.
The working mechanism of the alkali/alkaline earth metal cocatalyst of the catalyst developed by the research team is of great academic significance in that it is a new concept that has not been reported globally. In addition, it is possible to produce stable ammonia without performance degradation for 100 hours, and it is expected to be commercialized because it was synthesized through a simple process using an economical catalyst precursor. Regarding this, Yoon Hyeong-cheol, head of the Clean Fuel Division at the Korea Institute of Energy Science and Technology, introduced this technology and said, “KAIST is still conducting research to commercialize related catalysts.” 2nd and 3rd generation technologies are being actively developed, and the development of low-temperature, low-pressure, next-generation innovative catalyst technologies will continue in Korea in the future.”
Ammonia, a hydrogen transporter, is focusing on preoccupying the world
Countries around the world are accelerating advances in the belief that a place that dominates ammonia will be able to hold the hegemony of the ‘hydrogen economy’. Green ammonia is different from petroleum. Preemption of technology is tantamount to preemption of resources. Production of green hydrogen and green ammonia using renewable energy power is scheduled to begin in earnest from next year.
Saudi Arabia’s smart city, ‘NEOM City ‘, will have a plant that manufactures about 1.2 million tons of green ammonia per year using renewable energy such as solar and wind power. The produced green ammonia is transported to countries around the world, then refined into hydrogen through ammonia decomposition technology and used. The Australian Asian Renewable Energy Hub ( AREH
) project , which will start in 2028, is later than스포츠토토 Saudi Arabia’s NEOM project, but will be produced on a much larger scale. It is known that even British BP , one of the world’s five largest oil companies , is considering participating in Australia’s green ammonia project. Japan also announced plans to meet 10% of its electricity demand by 2050 through hydrogen and ammonia power generation through its carbon-neutral strategy announced in 2010. It even presented a short-term goal of replacing 20% of coal for power generation with ammonia by 2030. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry presented a roadmap that embodied this, including the use of 30 million tons of ammonia power generation fuel by 2050.
As it is difficult to directly produce hydrogen without carbon emissions in Korea, the government, science community, and companies are focusing on developing technologies to transport, synthesize, and decompose hydrogen using ammonia. In order to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, the government has also launched the ‘Green (Green) Ammonia Council for Carbon Neutrality’ by gathering 18 government-funded research institutes and companies centered on the Korea Institute of Energy Research. It plans to produce low-cost green ammonia with domestic technology and use it as transportation and ship fuel, and extract hydrogen from green ammonia and supply it. Companies such as
Doosan Energity, Lotte Chemical, LG Chem, and Hyundai Motor are also busy introducing ammonia synthesis and decomposition technologies. Doosan Energity entered into a business agreement with Korea Electric Power Technology and Samsung C&T to promote the green ammonia mixed combustion (mixed combustion) power generation business and started developing the technology. LG Chem plans to cooperate for the commercialization of clean hydrogen by using the produced hydrogen as fuel and developing catalysts. Lotte SK Enerroot, a joint venture between Lotte Chemical , SK Gas, and Air Liquide Korea, has also started to promote the establishment of the entire value chain, including the introduction, production, storage, transportation and utilization of hydrogen and ammonia. In addition, SK E&S , Namhae Chemical, Samsung Engineering, and Hanwha Global are also introducing the technology.
In the future, the introduction of green ammonia is expected to expand in Korea as well. However, technology development is still key. One researcher said, “Green ammonia synthesis and splitting technology to produce green hydrogen to replace chemical fuels are attracting attention, but so far, ammonia hybrid combustion (combustion of two or more fuels) power generation is the main focus, and commercialization of ammonia technology for clean hydrogen is “There is a long way to go,” he said. “In order to produce, transport, and store ammonia here, greenhouse gas emissions similar to those of coal and huge costs are also key.”