Out of thin air

• Autores: Hal Hodson
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2928, 2013, pág. 22
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Hodson talks about whether ammonia can be the clean fuel of the future. Most ammonia is produced by heating natural gas or coal as a source of hydrogen, then forcing it to react with atmospheric nitrogen. It's highly energy-intensive, accounting for between two and three percent of the world's energy budget and emitting over a billion tonnes of carbon each year in the process. Now engineer John Holbrook has developed a technique he hopes will make the process cleaner. Instead of heating a fossil fuel, his technique, called solid state ammonia synthesis, works by drawing hydrogen out of water vapor through a charged membrane, and then reacting it with nitrogen.