ammonia cracking with starfire’s catalyst · 2019-12-10 · ammonia energy conference, november...

1Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019

Ammonia Cracking with Starfire’s Catalyst

Adam Welch, PhD

Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019

2Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019

Starfire’s Proprietary Catalyst Ru nano-islands on Ba2CaAl2O6 (B2CA)

TEM image by Dr. Chris Cadigan, Colorado School of Mines

➔ Good Performance compared to other powders

➔ High pressure drop➔ Low Thermal Conductivity

Powder

Pellets

Metallic Monolith

➔ Good Performance compared to other pellets

➔ Medium pressure drop➔ Low Thermal Conductivity

➔ Great Performance➔ Very Low pressure drop➔ High Thermal Conductivity

P patents pending on all morphologies

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Cobalt on B2CA also performs well

● Higher loadings of more abundant Co and Co-oxide approach performance of Ru

● Advantage of Co-oxide washes out at very high weight loading

NH3EquilibriumConcentration

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Co vs. Ru Costs for Similar Performance

Co0.04 $/g

Ru7.91 $/g

15wt% Co on 10g oxide supportMetal cost: $0.05

3wt% Ru on 10g oxide supportMetal cost: $2.37

45X

Metal prices from Infomine.com

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Ammonia Cracking Setup

NH3

Ceramic Fiber Tube Heater

(cross section)

H2 Sensor

NH3 + H2

Main Reactor Body

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Cracker Main Reactor Body● High flow requires low pressure drop

in reactor

● Good catalyst contact with gasses

● Good heat transport from heat source to catalyst/gas surface

● Commercially available, vendor supplied part

● Reactor Volume 200 mL, mostly void space

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Main Reactor Catalyst Coating Process● Weight of catalyst: 4 grams

● Geometric surface area estimate: 460 cm2

● 9 mg/cm2

● Coating stable after 50+ heat cycles: 200 - 620C

1) Bare Monolith

2) Coating of B2CA oxide support

3) Coating of Ru or Co metal solution

4) Reduction of metal compound

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Catalyst on Metallic Monolith for NH3 cracking

● Cracking occurs at 1 atm

● Vol./Vol. Space Velocity, 300 hr-1 GHSV

● Residence Time, 12 seconds

● g/g Space Velocity, 11.4 hr-1 WHSV

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Pushing to Higher Flow and Power● Max GHSV: 4200 hr-1

● Residence time: 0.8 seconds

● Max WHSV: 160 hr-1

● Max Ammonia Flow: 630 g/hr

Flame Instability at 14 sLm(fuel rich)

➔ 4 grams catalyst➔ $0.02 Metal➔ 200 mL reactor

3.3 kW11,000 BTU/hr

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Catalyst Durability

● 90 hours, stable performance● 1 sLm flow rate● 550 C (partial cracking)● Slight performance Improvement after

90 hours

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Scaling from 3.3kW to Industrial Heat (44kW+)

State of Colorado Grant to scale process to a Honeywell Eclipse Thermjet

https://choosecolorado.com/6-1-million-advanced-industries-awards-fuel-27-colorado-start-ups/

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Adam.Welch@StarfireEnergy.com

● Inexpensive transition metal can be substituted for PGM metal

● Developed ideal Metallic Monolith reactor

● Catalyst cracks at lower temps, higher flows

● Scaling to possible direct NH3 industrial heating

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Acknowledgments

● Prof. Ryan O’Hayre, Dr. Chris Cadigan, Dr. Micheal Sanders at Colorado School of Mines

➔ Work funded by US DOE ARPA-e, grant # DE-AR0000685

➔ DOE SBIR, grant# DE-SC0019846

➔ State of Colorado Office of Economic Development (OEDIT) grant# CTGG1 19-3593