Storage of Ammonia For Energy (SAFE) - AGT Pilot

几十年来，氢经济一直是研究人员和开发人员关注的焦点。然而，运输和储存氢气的复杂性一直是部署这一概念的主要障碍。因此，可以采用其他材料来改善处理，同时降低长距离和长时间的成本。氨是一种高度氢化的分子，可用于储存和分配氢，因为该分子已用于肥料用途超过120年。作为一种无碳化学品，氨（NH3）具有支持氢过渡的潜力，从而使运输，电力和工业脱碳。然而，使用氨发电的复杂性在于适当使用该化学品以达到高功率输出，以及目前的低效率，这带来了总成本。这种复杂的情况也与产生倾向于高污染的燃烧曲线（具有高NOx排放和未燃烧的氨逃逸）有关。没有一种技术能够在使用氨的同时在大型发电装置中产生低排放和高效率，从而有效地实现氢气的回收和可以反馈回电网的搁浅的绿色能量的再转化。解决这些问题可以解决使用这种分子和储存可再生能源的最重要障碍之一。日本等国家已经制定了雄心勃勃的计划来解决这些问题，目标是到2030年使大型发电机组使用氨。因此，以英国创新为主导的欧洲同行也需要参与这些技术进步，以充分释放氢经济的成本效益。因此，该项目旨在建立基本的结果，以确保开发一种改进的燃烧室，用于使用氨来产生低NOx排放和低氨泄漏。通过NH3的燃烧过程产生的氢气生产也将有助于增加电力输出，从而能够在紧凑的系统中生产大量电力，提高效率并降低总成本。将在目前部署的系统（西门子燃气轮机）中评估改进技术，以确定在这些设备中实施的可行性，从而在不久的将来降低可用于使用氨作为燃料的单元的成本和时间。提出的新型燃烧系统也将集成到一个新的氨微型燃气涡轮机。该系统将与新的热力学原理相结合，这将导致三代循环（冷却，电力和热量），以释放氨的所有潜在好处，同时提高系统的效率，从而创造出一种独特的，有竞争力的技术，可以实施以支持氢过渡，碳足迹和环境处罚可以忽略不计。该项目将得到国际知名公司（西门子，雅拉，国家仪器）和寻求新发展领域的英国-欧洲创新企业（Hieta，Scitek，CoolDynamics）的支持，以创造实施氨燃烧系统和加湿氨-氢循环所需的独特创新产品。此外，该项目的成果将通过开放获取文件来确保，其中包含定制的数值和实验结果，并将通过一系列具有高影响力的出版物和研讨会来补充，从而提高人们对使用氨作为能源一部分的重要性的认识未来几十年的能源组合，英国是这些发展的核心。

A hydrogen economy has been the focus of researchers and developers over the decades. However, the complexity of moving and storing hydrogen has always been a major obstacle to deploy the concept. Therefore, other materials can be employed to improve handling whilst reducing cost over long distances and long periods. Ammonia, a highly hydrogenated molecule, can be used to store and distribute hydrogen easily, as the molecule has been employed for more than 120 years for fertilizer purposes. Being a carbon-free chemical, ammonia (NH3) has the potential to support a hydrogen transition thus decarbonising transport, power and industries. However, the complexity of using ammonia for power generation lays on the appropriate use of the chemical to reach high power outputs combined with currently low efficiencies that bring up overall costs. This complex scenario is also linked to the production of combustion profiles that tend to be highly polluting (with high NOx emissions and slipped unburned ammonia). There is no technology capable of using ammonia whilst producing both low emissions and high efficiencies in large power generation devices, thus efficiently enabling the recovery of hydrogen and reconversion of stranded, green energy that can be fed back to the grid. Tackling these problems can resolve one of the most important barriers in the use of such a molecule and storage of renewable energies. Countries such as Japan have engaged in ambitious programs to resolve these issues, aiming for large power units to run on ammonia by 2030. Thus, European counterparts, led by UK innovation, need also to engage in these technological advancements to fully unlock a hydrogen, cost-effective economy. Therefore, this project seeks to establish fundamental results that will ensure the development of an improved combustor for the use of ammonia to produce low NOx emissions combined with low ammonia slip. Hydrogen production, which will be generated through the combustion process of NH3, will also serve to increase power outputs, thus enabling the production of large power in compact systems, raising efficiency and decreasing overall cost. Improvement techniques will be assessed in currently deployed systems (Siemens gas turbines) to determine the feasibility of implementation in these devices, cutting both costs and times for units that can be employed to use ammonia as fuel in the near future. The novel combustion system proposed will be also integrated into a new ammonia micro gas turbine. The system will be combined with novel thermodynamic principles that will lead into a trigeneration cycle (cooling, power and heat) to unlock all the potential benefits of ammonia, whilst raising even more the efficiency of the system, thus creating a unique, competitive technology that can be implemented to support the hydrogen transition with negligible carbon footprint and environmental penalties. The project will be supported by companies of international reputation (Siemens, Yara, National Instruments) and UK-European innovation enterprises looking for new areas of development (Hieta, Scitek, CoolDynamics) with the creation of unique, innovative products needed for the implementation of ammonia combustion systems and humidified ammonia-hydrogen cycles. Moreover, the outcome of the project will be ensured via Open Access documentation with bespoke numerical and experimental results that will be supplemented by series of high impact publications and seminars, thus increasing awareness of the importance of using ammonia as part of the energy mix of the following decades, having the UK as core of these developments.