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Techno-economic assessment of nonfossil ammonia production

Tunå, Per LU ; Hulteberg, Christian LU orcid and Ahlgren, Serina (2014) In Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy 33(4). p.1290-1297
Abstract
The production of nitrogen fertilizers are almost exclusively based on fossil feedstocks such as natural gas and coal. Nitrogen fertilizers are a necessity to maintain the high agricultural production that the world's population currently demands. Ammonia produced from nonfossil-based feedstocks would enable renewable production of ammonia. Renewable feedstocks are one thing, but perhaps even more important in the future are the security of supply that decentralized production enables. In this study, the techno-economic evaluation of production of ammonia from various renewable feedstocks and for several plant sizes was investigated. The feedstocks included in this study are grid-based electricity produced from wind power, biogas, and... (More)
The production of nitrogen fertilizers are almost exclusively based on fossil feedstocks such as natural gas and coal. Nitrogen fertilizers are a necessity to maintain the high agricultural production that the world's population currently demands. Ammonia produced from nonfossil-based feedstocks would enable renewable production of ammonia. Renewable feedstocks are one thing, but perhaps even more important in the future are the security of supply that decentralized production enables. In this study, the techno-economic evaluation of production of ammonia from various renewable feedstocks and for several plant sizes was investigated. The feedstocks included in this study are grid-based electricity produced from wind power, biogas, and woody biomass. The feedstocks differed in exergy, and to make a fair comparison, the electric equivalence ratios method was used. The results showed that the energy consumption for biogas and electricity is the same at 42 GJ/tonne ammonia. When using the electric equivalence comparison for the same cases, the results are 26 and 42 GJ/tonne, respectively. Biomass-based production has an energy consumption of 58 GJ/tonne and 31 GJ/tonne when using the electric equivalence comparison, which should be compared with the industrial average of 37 GJ (or 21 GJ electric equivalence) per tonne of ammonia. Monte Carlo simulations were used to vary the inputs to the process to evaluate the production cost. The ammonia production cost ranged from $680 to 2300/tonne ammonia for the various cases studied (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
ammonia production, nonfossil based, exergy evaluation, production cost
in
Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy
volume
33
issue
4
pages
1290 - 1297
publisher
Whiley
external identifiers
  • wos:000343867900027
  • scopus:84908019089
ISSN
1944-7450
DOI
10.1002/ep.11886
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
3cfbc491-0a9f-41b2-94bc-a4cd5e381e6b (old id 4145598)
alternative location
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ludwig.lub.lu.se/doi/10.1002/ep.11886/abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:11:52
date last changed
2023-11-25 02:58:11
@article{3cfbc491-0a9f-41b2-94bc-a4cd5e381e6b,
  abstract     = {{The production of nitrogen fertilizers are almost exclusively based on fossil feedstocks such as natural gas and coal. Nitrogen fertilizers are a necessity to maintain the high agricultural production that the world's population currently demands. Ammonia produced from nonfossil-based feedstocks would enable renewable production of ammonia. Renewable feedstocks are one thing, but perhaps even more important in the future are the security of supply that decentralized production enables. In this study, the techno-economic evaluation of production of ammonia from various renewable feedstocks and for several plant sizes was investigated. The feedstocks included in this study are grid-based electricity produced from wind power, biogas, and woody biomass. The feedstocks differed in exergy, and to make a fair comparison, the electric equivalence ratios method was used. The results showed that the energy consumption for biogas and electricity is the same at 42 GJ/tonne ammonia. When using the electric equivalence comparison for the same cases, the results are 26 and 42 GJ/tonne, respectively. Biomass-based production has an energy consumption of 58 GJ/tonne and 31 GJ/tonne when using the electric equivalence comparison, which should be compared with the industrial average of 37 GJ (or 21 GJ electric equivalence) per tonne of ammonia. Monte Carlo simulations were used to vary the inputs to the process to evaluate the production cost. The ammonia production cost ranged from $680 to 2300/tonne ammonia for the various cases studied}},
  author       = {{Tunå, Per and Hulteberg, Christian and Ahlgren, Serina}},
  issn         = {{1944-7450}},
  keywords     = {{ammonia production; nonfossil based; exergy evaluation; production cost}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{1290--1297}},
  publisher    = {{Whiley}},
  series       = {{Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy}},
  title        = {{Techno-economic assessment of nonfossil ammonia production}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ep.11886}},
  doi          = {{10.1002/ep.11886}},
  volume       = {{33}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}