
Ammonia as a fuel for compression ignition engines - airstrike
https://www.ammoniaenergy.org/articles/review-of-ammonia-as-a-ci-fuel-published/
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AngryData
Scariest shit I ever did was help pull a completely full anhydrous ammonia
tank out of a 6 foot ditch. The trailer it was attached to had slid off the
gravel road and twisted upside down in the ditch, some nearby farmer bringing
it home from fillup. And it was not made to be picked up at all when full, but
you know smaller farmer not wanting to lose his ass and farm with it by
calling out some hazmat crew to drain it and transfer it. Used an excavator
with a chains to very carefully pick it up and roll it out onto the road so
they could pull it onto another trailer. If that fucker cracked open basically
all of us down in that little valley would have died horribly. But doing
dangerous as fuck shit on the cheap is the only way these small time farmers
are holding on in the face of corporate monoculture farms, and hope they can
survive long enough for those corporate farms to leave the area when the soil
is depleted and worthless from their unsustainable practices.

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abe_m
I came across this a few years ago. The largest problem is that Ammonia is
very toxic. It is also very corrosive. If you look around, there a lots of
articles about problems when delivery systems are used to transport ammonia,
and then propane. Trace contamination causes failure in propane systems due to
corrosion.

So in a crash situation, if the ammonia ruptures, you're probably dead, and
everyone else in the vicinity. With gasoline, diesel, propane, or natural gas,
if the tank ruptures, people in the vicinity are likely fine if it doesn't
ignite. On heavy trucks, ruptured diesel tanks are quite common in crashes.
Fires lighting from them, much less common (i.e. most ruptures don't result in
fire).

The article is devoid of any comment on the safety aspects, which from what I
see, is likely the more important point.

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AprilArcus
This is a very reasonable point, and even somewhat understated, since even
when ignited hydrocarbon fuel burns more safely than ammonia. Nitrogenous
compounds don't ignite and gradually burn off; they detonate.

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mannykannot
Don't try this at home, but IIRC from my mis-spent youth you can light the
ammonia gas in a half-empty bottle of household ammonia solution and it will
burn off quietly.

According to Wikipedia (which suggests that my memory may be faulty in this
case):

"The combustion of ammonia in air is very difficult in the absence of a
catalyst (such as platinum gauze or warm chromium(III) oxide), due to the
relatively low heat of combustion, a lower laminar burning velocity, high
auto-ignition temperature, high heat of vaporization, and a narrow
flammability range."

Unlike _nitrate_ compounds such as ammonium nitrate, ammonia contains no
oxygen, and disassociates into hydrogen and nitrogen only.

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staticautomatic
I recall in middle or high school making ammonium tri-iodide with a friend
whose dad was a navy seal and knew a thing or two about explosives but
nevertheless for some reason thought it was ok for us to make a highly touch-
sensitive explosive without supervision. We got the instructions from some
variant of the Anarchist Cookbook, and they quite simply instruct you to
dissolve iodine crystals in ammonia and filter it, leaving behind a residue of
the product. We left it inside a plastic cooler outside for the ammonia to
evaporate, which was fine until a gust of wind caused it to detonate and blow
up the cooler. I don’t recall us having a plan for how to get the filter out
of the cooler without detonating it though, so I’m grateful that it blew up
when we weren’t nearby.

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djrogers
Soooo... It has to be mixed with a co-combustion fuel, is dirtier than diesel,
and requires more space and weight to clean up it's exhaust.

The article really should have gone into some of the 'why' side of things -
what are the advantages of ammonia?

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asdfadsfgfdda
The main "why" is a carbon-free fuel (when produced by solar) in a relatively
dense form. Liquid ammonia has higher energy density than liquid hydrogen, is
easier to store, and is already used a bulk chemical around the world. It also
is more energy efficient than liquifying hydrogen.

If you imagined what oil would look like without carbon, ammonia is pretty
close. The toxicity probably prevents cars and trucks from using ammonia, but
for marine power or grid energy, it seems feasible.

Also, the co-combustion fuel can be supplied on-site by cracking the ammonia
to hydrogen.

[https://www.kallanishenergy.com/2020/07/08/air-products-
to-b...](https://www.kallanishenergy.com/2020/07/08/air-products-to-
build-5b-ammonia-project-in-saudi-arabia/)

~~~
lpcam33
What is the energy return of energy invested on getting hydrogen from solar
and then turning into ammonia?

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ZeroGravitas
Are you counting the energy cost of preventing or mitigating climate change?

It's not as good as plugging ibto the mains or using batteries, but it could
well be the best option for industrial hydrogen, large boats and planes.

~~~
lpcam33
So we need to add into EROEI all the energy needed to deactivate/retrofit de
old technology used in planes and large boats. If I don't do this exercise I
will be as in denial as the ones that don't believe in climate change. We need
to reduce air and maritime travel. We need to invest in trains and also avoid
unnecessary travel. Fuel taxes in the previously mentioned sectors may be a
good option because at the moment they don't have taxes on externalities. We
have only a few years to prevent climate change getting out of hand and there
are simple and effective solutions. We do not have a carbon budget for
solutions that are not yet viable on paper.

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Animats
MAN, the biggest producer of marine diesels, was supposedly working on this.
But there's nothing about it on the MAN site. Just on the "ammoniaenergy.org"
site.

The case for marine diesels is reasonable. The energy density is higher than
bunker fuel, and the fuel only has to be available at major ports.

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airstrike
MAN and Wartsila are both working on it

Paywalled, unfortunately:
[https://m.shippingwatch.com/article/12359286](https://m.shippingwatch.com/article/12359286)

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pfdietz
One use case for ammonia is in alkaline fuel cells.

Ammonia can be reformed to nitrogen + hydrogen by passing it over a hot
catalyst. The gas coming out is free of CO2, so it can be used in alkaline
fuel cells without carbonate formation (the CO2 in the air used by the cell
must still be scrubbed, but that's an easier problem).

Alkaline fuel cells can use nickel instead of platinum electrodes.

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CyanLite2
Ammonia production consumes about 2% of the world's energy and generates 1% of
its CO2.

