2021 CHE_Schwank_Solar Ammonia
Alexander Hill, a Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Instructor, monitors a new reactor designed to produce ammonia for fertilizer without relying on fossil fuels.
U-M’s team is pioneering a system that harnesses energy from sunlight, reducing the reliance on temperature and pressure to bring the hydrogen and nitrogen together. It will pull nitrogen from the air using an air separation unit while splitting water molecules to produce hydrogen. Those gases will then be compressed inside the reactor to create ammonia at significantly lower temperatures and pressures than traditional methods. Each step in U-M’s process is driven by solar power, through both electricity-generating panels as well as new catalysts that help fuel chemical reactions with light, known as photocatalysts.Communications & Marketing
2021 CHE_Schwank_Solar Ammonia
Alexander Hill, a Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Instructor, monitors a new reactor designed to produce ammonia for fertilizer without relying on fossil fuels.
U-M’s team is pioneering a system that harnesses energy from sunlight, reducing the reliance on temperature and pressure to bring the hydrogen and nitrogen together. It will pull nitrogen from the air using an air separation unit while splitting water molecules to produce hydrogen. Those gases will then be compressed inside the reactor to create ammonia at significantly lower temperatures and pressures than traditional methods. Each step in U-M’s process is driven by solar power, through both electricity-generating panels as well as new catalysts that help fuel chemical reactions with light, known as photocatalysts.Communications & Marketing