RestartNH3 - Energy functional processes and materials for storage of renewable energy in ammonia

当卡尔·博施（Carl Bosch）和弗里茨·哈伯（Fritz Haber）因发现人工固氮过程（Haber-Bosch过程）而获得诺贝尔奖时，他们承认可能有其他方法生产氨。世纪后，我们仍然在使用同样的依赖化石燃料的过程和非常相似的催化剂。现在，是时候重新开始氨的作用，而不仅仅是作为肥料养活超过50%的人口。在无碳社会中，氨（具有高能量密度和完善的运输基础设施）预计将成为可再生能源长期储存的关键，以使其生产与我们的能源需求保持一致。RestartNH 3将提供一种突破性的无催化剂氨合成工艺，完全由可再生能源、水和空气驱动。它的基本支柱将是能源功能纳米材料的发展，作为低温氨催化剂和高温吸收剂。创新的技术进步将建立在这些革命性能力的基础上，通过开创性地将反应和分离步骤集成到无污染的过程中，以及通过独特的热集成策略实现吸收剂的自我维持，节能再生。RestartNH 3将提供灵活（快速响应），高效（高能量存储），分布式（低资本与传统哈伯博世工艺的规模经济）氨合成工艺，与间歇性和地理隔离的可再生能源生产相一致。因此，我们将能够在生产点储存可再生能源，长期储存并以氨的形式运输。这一进程有可能创造一个新的全球无碳能源贸易体系，类似于现有的化石燃料贸易体系，这对实现我们的无碳目标和促进联合国可持续发展目标至关重要。

When Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber received their Nobel prize for the discovery of the artificial nitrogen fixation process (the Haber-Bosch process), they acknowledged that there might be other ways of producing ammonia. Over a century later, we are still using the same fossil fuel-dependent process and a very similar catalyst. Now, the time has arrived to restart the role of ammonia beyond feeding over 50 % of the population as fertiliser. In a carbon-free society, ammonia (with a high energy density and a well-established transport infrastructure) is anticipated to be the lynchpin for the long-term storage of renewable energy to align its production with our energy demands. RestartNH3 will provide a ground-breaking recycle-less ammonia synthesis process, driven exclusively by renewable energy, water and air. Its fundamental pillars will be the development of energy functional nano-materials as low temperature ammonia catalysts and high temperature absorbents. Innovative technological advances will build on these revolutionary capabilities through the pioneering integration of the reaction and separation steps into a recycle-less process as well as a self-sustained, energy-efficient regeneration of absorbents via a unique heat integration strategy. RestartNH3 will deliver an agile (fast response), efficient (high energy storage), distributed (low capital versus the economy of scale of the conventional Haber Bosch process) ammonia synthesis process aligned to the intermittent and geographically isolated production of renewable energy. As a result, we will be able to store renewable energy in their production points, to be stored long-term and transported in the form of ammonia. Such a process has the potential to create a new global carbon-free energy trade system similar to the existing one around fossil fuels, essential to fulfil our carbon-free ambitions and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.