Comments on: Japanese researchers find a simple and affordable way to store ammonia

By: Pseudo-Chrysostom

Pseudo-Chrysostom — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 20:20:37 +0000

That said, the fact that it is a materially lossless pathway that does not need further inputs beyond energy to cycle does suggest possible niche applications for convenience, assuming of course it is as reported.

By: Handle

Handle — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 13:48:34 +0000

It would be a neat project to see how cheap and/or small one could make a Haber Bosch (alternatively, electrochemical) device that one could plug into a regular electrical outlet for which would output pure ammonia from inputs of air and water. If you only need small amounts, no need to store and transport.

I did some runs on an h-cube micro continuous flow hydrogenator and one didn’t even use tanks or a facility feed, a little electrical hydrogen generator using distilled water made as much as the cube could use anyway. There are some times you would want to feed ammonia into the reactor, and a similar generator could be useful, so a potential idea for business development.

By: Bob Sykes

Bob Sykes — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 12:42:17 +0000

Agree. This is a nonsense article. Ammonia has been stored and used for around 100 years. It is/was a common industrial refrigerant. The Boston Fish Pier used it for their refrigerators. And farmers use anhydrous ammonia as a fertilizer.

By: Handle

Handle — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 21:55:23 +0000

Eh, reasonably cheap and easy to distill ammonia gas out of aqueous solution (at max concentration for atmospheric pressure) and dry by venting the stream through a column packed with calcium chloride, or heat ammonium chloride over oxide of alkaline earth metal, calcium and magnesium are best. Pretty easy to decompose small alkyl amines or amides, especially urea.

But anyway, we’ve been transporting pure gases as compressed liquids in high pressure canisters and tanks for decades and its just not that big a deal.