Ammonia is produced by passing a heated compressed mixture of Nitrogen and Hydrogen over acatalyst, at a pressure of between 80 – 220 bar, and a temperature of between 450 - 550°C. Recovery ofammonia is traditionally achieved by refrigeration, I.e., by cooling the effluent gas mixture to a relativelylow temperature of about -5°C to about -40°C. Refrigeration is energy intensive and does not lead tocomplete recovery of the ammonia. The un-recovered ammonia along with unconverted reactants andinerts are recompressed and recycled back to the reactor. This further reduces the reactor efficiency oryield. In this project, we propose to develop and demonstrate a technically feasible and commerciallyviable system that integrates reaction to produce ammonia along with recovery of the products byadsorption separation methods and significantly decrease the energy requirement in ammoniaproduction. The proposed method can be applied to both green plants process as well as to retrofit andrevamp existing ammonia plants in the U.S and achieve significant reduction in the energy requirement,raw material usage, capital cost, and environmental burdens while enhancing safety of industrialammonia production. As part of this project, we will also examine the potential effects of high temperatureand pressure on adsorbent stability in an Ammonia Process.
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