Imagine a giant battery that doesn't use lithium, but instead turns electricity into a liquid fuel called ammonia. This liquid can be stored in tanks for a month and moved around easily, like diesel, to be used where it's needed. It's like freezing electricity into a liquid form to save it for a rainy day.
Renewable energy is intermittent and often produced far from where it is needed. Current large-scale ammonia production (Haber-Bosch) requires massive capital investment and is not suitable for small-scale, on-site energy storage.
A lab-scale turnkey system consisting of a PEM cell, AC-DC Frequency Power Generator, and a synthesis loop for liquid anhydrous ammonia.
If you are a chemical producer dealing with high costs of ammonia feedstock — this project developed a PEM cell system that produces liquid anhydrous ammonia on-site. This allows you to integrate renewable energy directly into your production line, reducing reliance on external suppliers.
If you are an energy producer dealing with temporal mismatches between power generation and demand — this project developed a storage system that holds electrical energy for 1 month. It converts excess power into ammonia at 50 bar and room temperature to prevent energy waste.
If you are a shipping company dealing with spatial mismatches in fuel availability — this project developed a high energy density carrier in the form of ammonia. This enables the transport of stored electrical energy in a cost-competitive way across different geographic locations.
The system is designed to outperform the conventional Haber-Bosch Reactor in CAPEX by eliminating expensive heat exchangers and compressors, while maintaining similar OPEX.
It targets a market gap for decentralized production scales between 1 kW and 10 MW, specifically for production rates under 1000 kg/h of ammonia.
Based on available project data, specific licensing terms are not mentioned, but the project is developing a groundbreaking PEM cell concept and specific catalysts.
The system uses a project-built AC-DC Frequency Power Generator to couple renewable energy to the PEM-cell for high energy efficiency.
The project period runs from 2023-10-01 to 2027-09-30.
The consortium is highly balanced for commercialization, featuring a 50% industry ratio with 4 industrial partners and 4 research/university entities. It includes a strategic mix of catalyst manufacturers (C2CAT), power-to-X specialists (ELTRONIC Fueltech), and end-users in the chemical sector (ADISSEO), ensuring the technology is developed with direct market feedback from 7 different countries.
Contact Aarhus Universitet (DK) regarding the AELECTRA PEM cell development
Contact us to find partners for decentralized ammonia production pilots.
