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from the don't-open-next-to-a-bleach-plant dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Our society is in need of ammonia more than ever.
Chemical fertilizers, plastic, fibers, pharmaceuticals, refrigerants in heat pumps, and even explosives all use ammonia as raw material. Moreover, ammonia has been suggested as a hydrogen carrier recently because of its high hydrogen content.
In the Haber-Bosch process, which is the main method of ammonia synthesis, nitrogen reacts with hydrogen using a metal catalyst to produce ammonia. However, this industrial process is conducted at 200 atm and high reaction temperatures of nearly 500°C. Additionally, ammonia production requires using much natural gas, so scientists have been looking for alternative methods to sustainably synthesize ammonia at low temperature.
In a recent study, researchers from Waseda University and Nippon Shokubai Co. Ltd. achieved a highly efficient ammonia synthesis at low temperature, with the highest yield ever reported.
"By applying an electric field to the catalyst used in our experiment, we accomplished an efficient, small-scale process for ammonia synthesis under very mild conditions," says Professor Yasushi Sekine of Waseda University. "Using this new method, we can collect highly pure ammonia as compressed liquid and open doors to developing on-demand ammonia production plants that run on renewable energy."
[...] The new technique also addresses obstacles in conventional ammonia synthesis, such as hydrogen poisoning of Ru catalysts and delay in nitrogen dissociation. Furthermore, the research results suggest that smaller-scale, more dispersed ammonia production could be realized, and building highly-efficient ammonia plants that run on renewable energy will become possible. Such ammonia plants are expected to produce 10 to 100 tons of ammonia per day. Professor Sekine believes that their findings will be important for future energy and material sources.
DOI: 10.1039/c7sc00840f
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Friday June 16 2017, @04:15PM (2 children)
Fritz Haber was the dude that helped implement gas attacks in WWI. He even went and oversaw it. He was Jewish - which is of interest, and not meant to be derogatory. (Jews have some awesome food - I will absolutely go to a high holiday, if invited.)
Anyhow, he'd invent a product called Zyklon-A, which was a pesticide. That led to the invention of Zyklon-B which, as you probably know, was used to kill people during WWII. Many of those people were Jewish, though I'm not sure he shares much blame.
His wife would kill herself and some speculate it was because of his involvement in WWI and the use of gas. He took a whole lot of shit for helping the Kaiser gas people. He pretty much shrugged it off and said something like, "Death is death." If I recall correctly, he did not specifically work on Zyklon-B but had mentioned the potential use of such, as means of warfare - not specifically for gassing people in camps, in his journal. Even after this, he was still fairly respected in the scientific community but the general public really, really didn't seem to like the fella.
My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure he didn't have anything to do, directly, with Zyklon-B. It's been a while since I was an academic. Also, I've smoked a whole lot of pot since thing.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 16 2017, @05:46PM (1 child)
I see where you were going on that line of reasoning.
Hans Reiser invented a rather efficient file system, but then he killed his wife, so we can't use that file system anymore.
This new ammonia method will be adopted quickly and used world wide, just to get free of Faber.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Friday June 16 2017, @08:13PM
LOL No, just some history for you. If you decline to use tech from those who are associated with atrocities then you're gonna have a pretty boring life. It's just some history, nothing more. Judge 'em as you want, I don't have a nickel invested.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."