Green Ammonia Fuel – Ammonia from waste water for multi-fuel fuel cells

The overall project objective is to develop an efficient ammonia (recovery) process for the production of renewable, green ammonia fuel from wastewater, which meets the qualitative requirements of a SOFC fuel cell (suitable, high concentration and quality of the recovered NH₃ gas) and can be used for industrial and mobility applications.

By conducting experiments with real wastewater in laboratory scale, the project aims to overcome existing limitations by combining emergent zeolith- based ion exchange and vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) technology, developing a new regeneration cycle for the ion-exchange loop stripping process at high ammonia concentrations and coupling it with a novel VMD test cell with an optimised membrane.

At the end of the project, the basics (optimal operating parameters, optimal chemical properties of the ion-exchange regeneration solution, suitable membrane materials, as well as characterisation and proof of suitability of the generated fuel) should be researched for an innovative process combination, which combines energy-efficient wastewater treatment and the generation of green ammonia fuel in a single overall process.

The ammonia fuel produced in the laboratory should meet the requirements of the SOFC fuel cell developed by AVL List, and thus for the first time be able to produce ammonia fuel energy-efficiently from secondary sources.

Compared to conventional primary production of ammonia, both energy and CO₂ emissions will be saved, municipal wastewater treatment will be relieved, and the implementation of green ammonia as a CO₂-free energy vector and fuel of the future will be advanced through sustainable cycle closure.