Ammonia is an essential global commodity. Today, around 85% of all ammonia is used to produce synthetic nitrogen fertilisers and is responsible for around 45% of global hydrogen consumption, or around 33 Mt of hydrogen in 2020. Hydrogen production by ammonia cracking has received growing attention in recent years for several reasons: i) an established and complete supply chain with considerable growth due to the high supply and demand ammonia for several sectors, ii) ammonia cracking emits only nitrogen as a byproduct, iii) ammonia has attractive gravimetric and volumetric densities for hydrogen storage applications, allowing an easy transport with reduced cost.
While several projects have developed novel concepts for ammonia cracking technologies in recent years, the feasibility of up-scaling these technologies in terms of reactor design and hydrogen production rate to match industrial demand at various scales needs to be validated. This includes optimisation of thermal management, for instance, by considering integrating the cracking plant in a use-case scenario and implementing a modular approach to the cracking technology for rapid scale-up and deployment in various sectors.
The topic addresses the value chain from ammonia molecules to purified hydrogen for delivery in downstream applications. Hence, it addresses system design optimisation to reduce
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