TY - JOUR
T1 - From the Birkeland-Eyde process towards energy-efficient plasma-based NOX synthesis
T2 - A techno-economic analysis
AU - Rouwenhorst, Kevin Hendrik Reindert
AU - Jardali, Fatme
AU - Bogaerts, Annemie
AU - Lefferts, Leon
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the TKI-Energie from Toeslag voor Topconsortia voor Kennis en Innovatie (TKI) from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, the Excellence of Science FWO-FNRS project (FWO grant ID GoF9618n, EOS ID 30505023), and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 810182 – SCOPE ERC Synergy project).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Royal Society of Chemistry.
PY - 2021/5/1
Y1 - 2021/5/1
N2 - Plasma-based NOX synthesis via the Birkeland-Eyde process was one of the first industrial nitrogen fixation methods. However, this technology never played a dominant role for nitrogen fixation, due to the invention of the Haber-Bosch process. Recently, nitrogen fixation by plasma technology has gained significant interest again, due to the emergence of low cost, renewable electricity. We first present a short historical background of plasma-based NOX synthesis. Thereafter, we discuss the reported performance for plasma-based NOX synthesis in various types of plasma reactors, along with the current understanding regarding the reaction mechanisms in the plasma phase, as well as on a catalytic surface. Finally, we benchmark the plasma-based NOX synthesis process with the electrolysis-based Haber-Bosch process combined with the Ostwald process, in terms of the investment cost and energy consumption. This analysis shows that the energy consumption for NOX synthesis with plasma technology is almost competitive with the commercial process with its current best value of 2.4 MJ mol-N-1, which is required to decrease further to about 0.7 MJ mol-N-1 in order to become fully competitive. This may be accomplished through further plasma reactor optimization and effective plasma-catalyst coupling.
AB - Plasma-based NOX synthesis via the Birkeland-Eyde process was one of the first industrial nitrogen fixation methods. However, this technology never played a dominant role for nitrogen fixation, due to the invention of the Haber-Bosch process. Recently, nitrogen fixation by plasma technology has gained significant interest again, due to the emergence of low cost, renewable electricity. We first present a short historical background of plasma-based NOX synthesis. Thereafter, we discuss the reported performance for plasma-based NOX synthesis in various types of plasma reactors, along with the current understanding regarding the reaction mechanisms in the plasma phase, as well as on a catalytic surface. Finally, we benchmark the plasma-based NOX synthesis process with the electrolysis-based Haber-Bosch process combined with the Ostwald process, in terms of the investment cost and energy consumption. This analysis shows that the energy consumption for NOX synthesis with plasma technology is almost competitive with the commercial process with its current best value of 2.4 MJ mol-N-1, which is required to decrease further to about 0.7 MJ mol-N-1 in order to become fully competitive. This may be accomplished through further plasma reactor optimization and effective plasma-catalyst coupling.
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
U2 - 10.1039/D0EE03763J
DO - 10.1039/D0EE03763J
M3 - Article
SN - 1754-5692
VL - 14
SP - 2520
EP - 2534
JO - Energy & environmental science
JF - Energy & environmental science
IS - 5
ER -