The production of ammonia emits around 451 million tons of CO2 per year worldwide. Downstream products of ammonia, such as fertilizers, therefore inevitably have a poor environmental balance. Alternative lithium-based production processes have already been successfully tested on a laboratory scale. These work with electricity as an energy source and do not use hydrogen, which means that no fossil fuels are required.
They are also much more “elegant”, as synthesis is possible at comparatively low temperatures and pressures. In contrast to other “Power-to-X” technologies, our power2soil process does not have any problems with storage and no reconversion to electricity is necessary. As part of the Sustainability Challenge, a production plant is to be modeled with a process engineering “scale-up” to determine the large-scale CO2 savings potential.
In addition to sustainability, the focus should always be on economic efficiency. The process is to be made profitable through emissions trading, cooperation with state institutions and the use of electricity peaks from renewable energies.