Ammonia does a greater job of storing hydrogen than hydrogen itself, in some ways, and it might assist clear up some tough industries that require high-density power. Brooklyn firm Amogy has now introduced a world-first ammonia-powered semi truck.
Ammonia has two chief benefits over hydrogen as an power service. One is the truth that it is a liquid at ambient temperature and stress ranges, making it a ton simpler to retailer, transport and deal with; hydrogen both must be closely compressed to round 700 bar, or else saved cryogenically cooled as a liquid, to only 20.28 Okay (−252.87 °C; −423.17 °F) – each of those are energy-intensive processes. The second is how a lot power it carries: by quantity, practically thrice as a lot as hydrogen fuel, and by weight, greater than 20 occasions as a lot as in the present day’s lithium batteries.
It may be produced cleanly, and it may be used as a gas in many various methods, lots of which create zero dangerous or climate-relevant emissions. And whereas it does have sure drawbacks, inexperienced ammonia is considered as a promising clear gas various for industries like transport, aviation and different functions the place batteries and hydrogen fuel merely cannot carry sufficient juice to get the job finished.
Amogy was based in 2020 to speed up the event of inexperienced ammonia as an influence supply for clear transport. The corporate says it had a 5-kW ammonia drone flying by July 2021, adopted shortly by a 100-kW ammonia tractor in Might 2022.
Now it is scaled-up its ammonia powertrain to 300 kW, and introduced it in what it claims is the “world’s first ammonia-powered, zero-emission semi truck” – a 2018 Freightliner Cascadia Class 8 truck that is been retrofit with an ammonia gas system slung underneath the cabin and stacked up behind it, showing so as to add little in the way in which of bulk to the usual truck.
Amogy
It fills up in eight minutes, to hold round 900 kWh of “whole saved web electrical power” – roughly the identical quantity of power because the Tesla Semi shops in its lithium battery packs. Amogy says its “carbon-free power system … has 5X increased system-level power densities in comparison with lithium batteries,” so it is cheap to anticipate this cab will probably be considerably lighter than the Tesla.
The truck has been constructed, stuffed up and “examined for a number of hours on the campus of Stony Brook College,” and it is scheduled for full-scale real-world efficiency analysis on a take a look at monitor later this month.
So how would we anticipate it to match to the Tesla Semi? Does ammonia look higher than batteries for this sort of heavy transport? That is very exhausting to say; Amogy does not present efficiency or vary estimates at this stage.
We do know there will be inefficiencies to cope with right here that do not apply to battery-electric autos. Amogy’s powertrain options an ammonia cracker that converts the ammonia again into hydrogen. It then runs that hydrogen via a gas cell to create electrical energy, and makes use of that energy to drive electrical motors.
So if Amogy’s “whole saved web electrical power” of 900 kWh merely means there’s sufficient ammonia on board to theoretically retailer 900 kWh, it does not imply 900 kWh will attain the motors. There will be losses within the onboard ammonia cracking reactors, additional losses in purification phases that be sure that the hydrogen’s prepared to be used within the gas cell, and additional losses on the gas cell stage.
We do not know what applied sciences Amogy is utilizing, or the effectivity issue at any of those phases. We will attempt to guess, although. The Ammonia Vitality Affiliation cites a greatest case ammonia cracking effectivity of 76%, however that is seemingly at industrial scale – we would not anticipate a cracking reactor that matches on a truck or a tractor to function that effectively. Nonetheless, if we use that determine, some 684 kWh of power will attain the gas cell within the type of hydrogen. If we take a high-end estimate for PEM gas cell effectivity at 65%, then 444.6 kWh of power will make it via to the motors. That is slightly underneath half of the unique 900 kWh, so on this optimistic state of affairs, the Amogy truck will journey about half so far as the Tesla Semi.
That does not sound nice. However then again, you might simply add vary by sticking one other couple of ammonia tanks someplace – and that’ll be a a lot much less painful course of than attempting to increase the vary of a lithium-battery-powered semi. Plus, it is a retrofit; designing a brand new truck across the ammonia idea would allow you to do all types of issues.
We’ll have an interest to find out how this machine performs. We have been harping on for some time now in regards to the extensively predicted lithium useful resource squeeze that is anticipated to kick in over the subsequent decade; there’s nowhere close to sufficient lithium manufacturing to fulfill the projected demand because the EV transition accelerates – not to mention different battery-relevant metals.
Ammonia represents an inefficient, however high-density power storage medium. It carries lower than half the power diesel does, however greater than lithium or hydrogen, and it may be produced and used cleanly. It is well-understood by way of storage, transport and dealing with, and it is already obtainable in bulk portions for those who do not thoughts working with soiled gas to begin with. And as an simply obtainable liquid gas, it might completely be related within the freight sector.
Amogy is taking a look at marine subsequent. It says it’s going to have a 1-MW-scale ammonia powered tugboat to point out off later this yr, and it hopes to scale this up over 10 MW by 2025, to supply a powertrain related to container ships on trans-oceanic voyages. There are different ammonia-powered transport tasks within the works; Australian mining firm Fortescue, for instance, says it’s going to have a 75-meter (246-ft) vessel operating someday this yr. However that is anticipated to make use of an ammonia combustion powertrain quite than an electrical system run via a gas cell.
Take a look at a extremely uninformative video of the Amogy truck beneath.
Amogy Presents World’s First Ammonia-Powered Semi Truck
Supply: Amogy
