Electrocatalytic membrane reactors process

The electrochemical process offers the possibilities to produce ammonia with milder working conditions than Haber-Bosch process. Ammonia can be electrochemically synthesised under atmospheric pressure. There is no thermodynamic limitation in the electrochemical process. As mentioned before, the ammonia industry depends very much on natural gas, and consequentiy releases a huge amount of CO2. With the demand for environmentally friendly industry and the depletion of fossil fuels, the use of renewable feedstock and electricity is encouraged. Recently, renewable feedstock such as H2O or H2 from water electrolysis was found to be usable in an electrocatalytic membrane reactor (Lan, Irvine, Tao, 2013). 

Catalysts play an important role in overcoming the activation barrier in ammonia synthesis. It is weU known that strong N=N triple bond and the low sticking coefficient of the molecule nitrogen limit the choice of catalyst. However, the mechanism of ammonia formation on an electrocatalyst seems to be different from that of the conventional catalyst. The information about the conventional catalyst in the Haber-Bosch process and the electrocatalyst in the electrocatalytic membrane reactor are described in this section. 

Solid-state electrochemistry is an important and rapidly developing scientific field that integrates many aspects of classical electrochemical science and engineering, materials science, solid-state chemistry and physics, heterogeneous catalysis, and other areas of physical chemistry. This field comprises - but is not limited to - the electrochemistry of solid materials, the thermodynamics and kinetics of electrochemical reactions involving at least one solid phase, and also the transport of ions and electrons in solids and interactions between solid, liquid and/or gaseous phases, whenever these processes are essentially determined by the properties of solids and are relevant to the electrochemical reactions. The range of applications includes many types of batteries and fuel cells, a variety of sensors and analytical appliances, electrochemical pumps and compressors, ceramic membranes with ionic or mixed ionic-electronic conductivity, solid-state electrolyzers and electrocatalytic reactors, the synthesis of new materials with improved properties and corrosion protection, supercapacitors, and electrochromic and memory devices. 

Decreasing operation temperature of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and electrocatalytic reactors down to 800-1100 K requires developments of novel materials for electrodes and catalytic layers, applied onto the surface of solid electrolyte or mixed conducting membranes, with a high performance at reduced temperatures. Highly-dispersed active oxide powders can be prepared and deposited using various techniques, such as spray pyrolysis, sol-gel method, co-precipitation, electron beam deposition etc. However, most of these methods are relatively expensive or based on the use of complex equipment. This makes it necessary to search for alternative synthesis and porous-layer processing routes, enabling to decrease the costs of electrochemical cells. Recently, one synthesis technique based on the use... 

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