Creating Green & Renewable Energy
The Customer
The customer is a company that is working on developing a new technology that can use ammonia as a clean and renewable fuel for various sectors. They want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the global goal of Net Zero.
The Challenge
The customer had invented a process that could produce energy from pellets made of a common material called alumina. Alumina is used in many industries, such as ceramics, abrasives, refractories, and catalysts. It is also the main source of aluminum metal. The customer’s process involved treating alumina pellets with a chemical called nitric acid to form a compound that could release oxygen and nitrogen when heated.
This reaction could be used to produce energy without emitting any carbon dioxide or other pollutants. However, the customer faced a big problem: nitric acid is very corrosive and can damage the equipment used to treat the alumina pellets. Stainless steel, which is often used for industrial vessels, cannot resist high concentrations of nitric acid. Therefore, the customer needed to test their process with a different material that could mimic the behavior of alumina without being affected by the acid.
The Solution
The customer contacted Advanced Powder Solution (APS) to help them with this problem. APS is a sister company of GEMCO and uses their industry mixers and dryers. Their solutions are versatile and flexible, and usually, their machinery can perform multiple functions in one machine.
The customer suggested a different material for the testing: lanthanum nitrate. Lanthanum nitrate is a salt of lanthanum, a rare earth element. It has similar properties to the compound formed by alumina and nitric acid, but it is less corrosive and more stable. It can also release oxygen and nitrogen when heated.
The customer’s technology uses ammonia as a green energy source by turning it back into nitrogen and hydrogen through a catalytic process that generates heat and electricity. APS demonstrated this solution in their lab with the customer. They used their GEMCO unit, made of stainless steel, to treat the lanthanum nitrate with heat and then dry it. The result was a successful test that proved the feasibility of the technology and satisfied the customer.
Lanthanum nitrate is related to ammonia because it contains nitrogen atoms that can be turned into ammonia molecules by using hydrogen atoms.
Ammonia is a gas that can be stored as a liquid under moderate pressure and temperature. It has a high energy density and can be used as a fuel for various applications.
The Results
The customer was impressed by APS’s ability to adapt, accept suggested alternative solutions, and not give up on the problem. They were happy with the quality of the material and the energy potential of the process, which was proven with this testing.
Now they are looking to buy a GEMCO unit made of hastelloy to continue their project with alumina pellets. This technology has great potential for creating green and renewable energy from pellets without emissions. It could be a breakthrough for the energy industry and the environment.
