Ammonia as a Fuel for Cars
Who would have thought that liquid ammonia might just be that untapped energy source the world needs. All the flimflam around carbon emissions, EVs and hydrogen powered cars pales substantially when you start to grasp how ammonia could well become the biggest driving force for global transportation, given the right technology. All it would take is more clean, green electricity via solar and wind energy and, hey presto, the ability to make more liquid ammonia becomes way easier, less costly and environmentally friendlier. But let’s not stop there; let’s match that new ammonia production methodology with perfected ammonia combustion technology, and we have ourselves a green ammonia-fuelled vehicle.
Ammonia has been around for well over a hundred years and has many uses. The current dated process of making ammonia isn’t green. Combining nitrogen molecules that come from the air with hydrogen molecules that come from natural gas and coal creates huge amounts of greenhouse gases. So to make ammonia the green way has taken scientists to perfect the art of taking hydrogen from water and separating it from oxygen atoms using electricity.
Australia is the place to be for producing liquid ammonia the green way. There is so much practical solar energy available here in Australia for getting electricity from an array of solar panels which feed into the liquid ammonia production plant. Wind energy can equally be harnessed and fed into the production plant.
When this clean electricity gets to the production plant, electro chemical cells use electricity and catalysts to make components of air and water into ammonia. All of this process is clean and is performed without fossil fuels and the extreme heat that is required by older methods of ammonia production.
The older ammonia production plants are also costly to run and produce carbon dioxide emissions. Australia could easily be a world leader in producing cleanly made liquid ammonia via solar and wind energy
Research for perfected ammonia combustion technology for vehicle engines is ongoing and could well be all we’re waiting for. Ammonia (NH3) is made up of 3 hydrogen atoms bonded to a single nitrogen atom; it can serve as a low-carbon fuel, where the only emissions after ammonia combustion would be that of nitrogen and water.
An ammonia-fuelled vehicle would operate in much the same way as our conventional combustion motor designed for running on fossil fuels. The liquid ammonia is burned with oxygen to create energy. Unlike conventional gasoline vehicles, ammonia-powered vehicles would not emit CO2. Here is a win-win scenario that it would seem necessary to mandate.
In a hydrogen-powered car, a hydrogen fuel cell powers the vehicles’ on board electric motor, only giving off heat and water vapour as a result. Likewise, an ammonia fuel cell gives off heat, nitrogen and water vapour.
Researchers in spark-ignition systems are continuing to perfect ammonia combustion technology. The main hurdle that needs to be overcome in an ammonia-fuelled combustion engine is that when ammonia is combusted, the combustion produces a flame with a relatively low propagation speed. This low combustion rate of ammonia causes the combustion to be inconsistent under low engine load and/or high engine speed operating conditions. Scientists are also investigating the possibility for ammonia to be used in fuel cells as a cheap, clean and powerful energy source for vehicles. Researchers have succeeded in developing a new catalyst that burns ammonia (NH3) at a low temperature.
Australia could create solar- and wind-powered ammonia production plants which could then be the tap sources for liquid ammonia. The Australian grown ammonia could be used locally to power large vehicle fleets as well as for exporting around the world for overseas use. This is all very exciting stuff and will be something I’ll continue to follow as information and details become available.
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