Now, researchers at the University of Bonn have made an important breakthrough in sustainable agriculture. They created an ammonia synthesis process that doesn’t destroy the environment like the Haber-Bosch process. Their Nikolay Kornienko and his compatriot Hossein Bemana developed a revolutionary way to combine renewable energy sources. Their goal is to harness solar and wind power to help make ammonia—an essential ingredient in nitrogen fertilizers—more efficiently while doing less harm to the planet.
Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch first created what’s now called the Haber-Bosch process in the early 1900s. For more than a century, this process has been the major source of industrial-scale ammonia production. This process uses air to obtain nitrogen, which is combined with hydrogen in an iron-based catalyst to synthesize ammonia. Its current commercial implementation occurs in extremely high pressure (over 3000 psi) and temperatures (over 500 degrees Celsius), which makes the process very energy-intensive. Haber and Bosch received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 due to the importance of this process. In recent years, worries have intensified over its environmental toll.
The Challenges of the Haber-Bosch Process
With the current Haber-Bosch process, energy input is substantial and often fossil-fuel-derived. Agriculture as a whole is today facing growing skepticism about the climate impacts of farming. This illuminates the immediate opportunity and need for a more sustainable ammonia production approach. Pressing process constraints Among other flaws, the nature of the high-pressure systems and ultra-thermal conditions, which result in a very energy intensive process.
Kornienko emphasizes the urgency of finding alternatives. He made clear that looking for new ammonia synthesis routes is their number one priority. This is an essential step towards our goal of a sustainable and climate-neutral society. The challenges posed by the Haber-Bosch process have driven researchers to explore new avenues that can potentially reduce emissions and reliance on non-renewable energy sources.
A New Approach to Ammonia Production
Kornienko and Bemana came up with a creative strategy by incorporating lithium metal to make it react directly with nitrogen gas (N2). The metathesis reaction produces a lithium-nitrogen compound. This approach is a step towards more widespread use of renewable energy sources. The team removes hydrogen atoms from water using an electrical chemical process. They are then moving these atoms over to a reactive lithium/nitrogen material, seeking to create ammonia using significantly less energy than conventional processes.
Kornienko explained the mechanics of their new process: “In the end, we were able to extract hydrogen atoms electrochemically directly from the water and transfer them to the reactive lithium/nitrogen material to produce ammonia.” Through this synthesis pathway, this breakthrough demonstrates new potential. It bolsters global efforts to encourage more sustainable agricultural practices.
The new process is still very nascent. Early experiments show that the energy efficiency of this lithium mediated nitrogen reduction reaction (LiNRR) is still about 25%. Kornienko acknowledges the challenges ahead: “We are still in the early stages.” To ensure that this can be done at scale, scientists need to drastically increase their yields. Their overall goal is to get 1,000 times the result seen so far in existing experiments.
Future Prospects and Practical Applications
The implications of this research go well beyond the production of ammonia. It would encourage a foundation-level rethink of how we produce fertilizer in the first place. Our continued dependency on fossil fuels for ammonia synthesis is an environmental travesty. Kornienko’s approach is one promising solution to significantly lessen these adverse effects.
Bamana remarked on the robustness of their method: “The lithium-mediated nitrogen reduction reaction (LiNRR) is considered the most robust way to electrify ammonia synthesis.” It’s an exciting new approach that will help unite our clean energy and agricultural sectors to create a more productive and sustainable future for all of us.
Kornienko warns that there are practical challenges still to overcome. He continued, “For the time being, we see this system not as a permanent model, some logistic challenges are preventing us. The team knows that to scale this process they will need to navigate the technical hurdles of improving efficiency and yield.