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Presumably an ammonia cell would produce nitrous oxide?

tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jan 25th, 2012 at 12:26:57 PM EST
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Research seems to be ongoing, but it seems that direct ammonia fuel cells may be high temperature. I came across a description of a "moderate" temperature approach, where that implies ~500C, with ammonia cracked to H2 and N2, used in an alkaline fuel cell, which has good rejection of unprocessed traces of ammonia, with the exhaust gas burned to heat the cracker.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Fri Jan 27th, 2012 at 07:21:57 PM EST
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Also, note from this source that ammonia can be a reducing agent for 2*NOx->N2+O2 with a proper catalyst, with some base metal catalysts working in the 450C to 800C range. Since an ammonia fuel cell would obviously have an ongoing supply of ammonia for that reducing reaction, it seems like good NOx control ought to be possible for the combustion of the exhaust hydrogen to drive the cracker.

The temperature for the base metal catalyst seems to support the 2*NH3->N2+3*H2 cracking approach I noted above for an alkaline fuel cell that works well in the 500C range ~ the gas over the catalyst would already by in the right temperature range.

A lot of this is that hydrogen fuel cells have been pursued for quite a long while, and the push to develop the technologies for ammonia as an easier to control and manage hydrogen carrier seems to be substantially more recent.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sun Jan 29th, 2012 at 12:14:51 AM EST
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