LAPSE:2018.0383
Published Article
LAPSE:2018.0383
Modeling and Optimal Design of Absorbent Enhanced Ammonia Synthesis
Matthew J. Palys, Alon McCormick, E. L. Cussler, Prodromos Daoutidis
July 31, 2018
Synthetic ammonia produced from fossil fuels is essential for agriculture. However, the emissions-intensive nature of the Haber⁻Bosch process, as well as a depleting supply of these fossil fuels have motivated the production of ammonia using renewable sources of energy. Small-scale, distributed processes may better enable the use of renewables, but also result in a loss of economies of scale, so the high capital cost of the Haber⁻Bosch process may inhibit this paradigm shift. A process that operates at lower pressure and uses absorption rather than condensation to remove ammonia from unreacted nitrogen and hydrogen has been proposed as an alternative. In this work, a dynamic model of this absorbent-enhanced process is proposed and implemented in gPROMS ModelBuilder. This dynamic model is used to determine optimal designs of this process that minimize the 20-year net present cost at small scales of 100 kg/h to 10,000 kg/h when powered by wind energy. The capital cost of this process scales with a 0.77 capacity exponent, and at production scales below 6075 kg/h, it is less expensive than the conventional Haber⁻Bosch process.
Keywords
ammonia synthesis, design optimization, Dynamic Modelling
Suggested Citation
Palys MJ, McCormick A, Cussler EL, Daoutidis P. Modeling and Optimal Design of Absorbent Enhanced Ammonia Synthesis. (2018). LAPSE:2018.0383
Author Affiliations
Palys MJ: Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 5405, USA
McCormick A: Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 5405, USA [ORCID]
Cussler EL: Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 5405, USA
Daoutidis P: Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 5405, USA [ORCID]
[Login] to see author email addresses.
Journal Name
Processes
Volume
6
Issue
7
Article Number
E91
Year
2018
Publication Date
2018-07-18
Published Version
ISSN
2227-9717
Version Comments
Original Submission
Other Meta
PII: pr6070091, Publication Type: Journal Article
Record Map
Published Article

LAPSE:2018.0383
This Record
External Link

doi:10.3390/pr6070091
Publisher Version
Download
Files
[Download 1v1.pdf] (420 kB)
Jul 31, 2018
Main Article
License
CC BY 4.0
Meta
Record Statistics
Record Views
885
Version History
[v1] (Original Submission)
Jul 31, 2018
 
Verified by curator on
Jul 31, 2018
This Version Number
v1
Citations
Most Recent
This Version
URL Here
https://psecommunity.org/LAPSE:2018.0383
 
Original Submitter
Auto Uploader for LAPSE
Links to Related Works
Directly Related to This Work
Publisher Version