A photo-assisted electrochemical-based demonstrator for green ammonia synthesis

Bridging laboratory research and practical utilization is of crucial importance for the development of green ammonia synthetic technologies. A decentralized photo-assisted electrochemical-based demonstrator has been proposed for green ammonia synthesis from renewable electricity, air and water, where well-known defect-laden WO 3 is used as the working electrode, and a commercially available PV panel supplies renewable electricity. In this demonstrator, defect-laden WO3 exhibits the optimum electrochemical NH3 formation rate (4.51 x 10(-12) mol s(-1) cm(-2)) in 0.1 M K 2 SO 4 in a photovoltaic electrochemical (PV-EC) system. A system-level energy and cost analysis was conducted to investigate its economic viability and a general evaluation tool for system performance and cost estimation was proposed. This advance enables the possibility of integrating the small-scale green ammonia demonstrator into a stand-alone farm system. (C) 2021 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Bridging laboratory research and practical utilization is crucial for developing green ammonia synthetic technologies. A decentralized photo-assisted electrochemical-based demonstrator has been proposed, which uses defect-laden WO3 as the working electrode and a commercial PV panel for renewable electricity. System-level energy and cost analysis reveal its economic viability, enabling the integration of small-scale green ammonia demonstrators into standalone farm systems.