13
1 Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019 Ammonia Cracking with Starfire’s Catalyst Adam Welch, PhD Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
1Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Ammonia Cracking with Starfire’s Catalyst
Adam Welch, PhD
Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
2Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Starfire’s Proprietary Catalyst Ru nano-islands on Ba2CaAl2O6 (B2CA)
TEM image by Dr. Chris Cadigan, Colorado School of Mines
➔ Good Performance compared to other powders
➔ High pressure drop➔ Low Thermal Conductivity
Powder
Pellets
Metallic Monolith
➔ Good Performance compared to other pellets
➔ Medium pressure drop➔ Low Thermal Conductivity
➔ Great Performance➔ Very Low pressure drop➔ High Thermal Conductivity
P patents pending on all morphologies
3Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Cobalt on B2CA also performs well
● Higher loadings of more abundant Co and Co-oxide approach performance of Ru
● Advantage of Co-oxide washes out at very high weight loading
NH3EquilibriumConcentration
4Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Co vs. Ru Costs for Similar Performance
Co0.04 $/g
Ru7.91 $/g
15wt% Co on 10g oxide supportMetal cost: $0.05
3wt% Ru on 10g oxide supportMetal cost: $2.37
45X
Metal prices from Infomine.com
5Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Ammonia Cracking Setup
NH3
Ceramic Fiber Tube Heater
(cross section)
H2 Sensor
NH3 + H2
Main Reactor Body
6Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Cracker Main Reactor Body● High flow requires low pressure drop
in reactor
● Good catalyst contact with gasses
● Good heat transport from heat source to catalyst/gas surface
● Commercially available, vendor supplied part
● Reactor Volume 200 mL, mostly void space
7Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Main Reactor Catalyst Coating Process● Weight of catalyst: 4 grams
● Geometric surface area estimate: 460 cm2
● 9 mg/cm2
● Coating stable after 50+ heat cycles: 200 - 620C
1) Bare Monolith
2) Coating of B2CA oxide support
3) Coating of Ru or Co metal solution
4) Reduction of metal compound
8Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Catalyst on Metallic Monolith for NH3 cracking
● Cracking occurs at 1 atm
● Vol./Vol. Space Velocity, 300 hr-1 GHSV
● Residence Time, 12 seconds
● g/g Space Velocity, 11.4 hr-1 WHSV
9Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Pushing to Higher Flow and Power● Max GHSV: 4200 hr-1
● Residence time: 0.8 seconds
● Max WHSV: 160 hr-1
● Max Ammonia Flow: 630 g/hr
Flame Instability at 14 sLm(fuel rich)
➔ 4 grams catalyst➔ $0.02 Metal➔ 200 mL reactor
3.3 kW11,000 BTU/hr
10Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Catalyst Durability
● 90 hours, stable performance● 1 sLm flow rate● 550 C (partial cracking)● Slight performance Improvement after
90 hours
11Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Scaling from 3.3kW to Industrial Heat (44kW+)
State of Colorado Grant to scale process to a Honeywell Eclipse Thermjet
https://choosecolorado.com/6-1-million-advanced-industries-awards-fuel-27-colorado-start-ups/
12Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
● Inexpensive transition metal can be substituted for PGM metal
● Developed ideal Metallic Monolith reactor
● Catalyst cracks at lower temps, higher flows
● Scaling to possible direct NH3 industrial heating
13Ammonia Energy Conference, November 12, 2019
Acknowledgments
● Prof. Ryan O’Hayre, Dr. Chris Cadigan, Dr. Micheal Sanders at Colorado School of Mines
➔ Work funded by US DOE ARPA-e, grant # DE-AR0000685
➔ DOE SBIR, grant# DE-SC0019846
➔ State of Colorado Office of Economic Development (OEDIT) grant# CTGG1 19-3593
