Project description
Ammonia production as a renewable fuel
Ammonia is widely considered as the future ideal renewable fuel. The EU-funded ORACLE project will develop scalable alternative reaction technologies integrating catalysts and reactor technology for decentralised production of ammonia from N2 and H2O. The project will develop and validate at TRL3 three strands of ammonia synthesis: electrocatalytic, plasma-aided electrocatalytic and electrified thermal catalysis process that will serve as a benchmark. ORACLE will test overlooked electrocatalysts for electrochemical synthesis of ammonia from N2 and H2O, develop plasma-aided electrochemical cells and test exciting new concepts of NOx and H2 recombination to ammonia in an electrochemical cell to increase the selectivity. The ORACLE system processes will potentially decisively transform current large scale ammonia-based production.
Objective
The Oracle will develop scalable alternative reaction technologies for decentralised production of ammonia as a renewable fuel from N2 and H2O. Three strands for ammonia synthesis will be developed and validated at TRL3: electro-catalytic, plasma-aided electrocatalytic as well as electrified thermal catalysis process that will serve as a benchmark. The ORACLE proposes to test overlooked electrocatalysts for electrochemical synthesis of NH3 from N2 and H2O. To increase the selectivity ORACLE proposes to develop plasma-aided electrochemical cells and test exciting new concepts of NOx and H2 recombination to NH3 in an electrochemical cell. Here NOx and H2 are sourced from plasma-assisted electrolysis of N2 and H2O. The ORACLE system processes will integrate catalysts and reactor technology to create adaptable user-centered system for localized on-site ammonia production. The processes have the potential to decisively transform existing large-scale ammonia based production towards a non-fossil-based economy.
At the core of ORACLES’s systems are tuned (electro)catalyst design and their 3D controlled deposition for, on the one hand magnetic nanoparticle-bearing catalyst compositions for the thermocatalytic process and, on the other hand, NRR reduction, OER and HOR catalysts for the (plasma-assisted) electro-catalytic process. The electrified thermal catalysis will use local heat delivery through magnetic particles-mediated AC-fields to push the catalytic process beyond the reactor heat transfer limits.
The ORACLE project partners have accumulated a wealth of experience in e-fuels within a number of projects. In addition, the ORACLE project will benefit from the European longstanding collaboration with two Japanese research centres, AIST and ORIST. To reach this ambitious goal, ORACLE will draw on the complimentary expertise of its industrial ammonia producer CASALE and innovative catalyst manufacturer C2CAT, who cover two opposite ends of commercially-driven value chain.
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Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark