THERMO-ENVIRONOMIC EVALUATION OF AMMONIA PRODUCTION

The thermo-environomic assessment of the industrial production of ammonia has been investigated in this project. Thermodynamic models for the ammonia synthesis were developed on the flowsheeting software Vali based on the techniques used at LENI. Several process configurations were evaluated for the steam-methane reforming and the biomass gasification processes. Optimized values for key performance indicators were obtained based on sensitivity analysis and multi-objective optimization with respect to maximizing the energy yield while minimizing capital investment and carbon dioxide emissions. Life cycle assessment was performed on the optimized process configuration in order to address the possible process GWP reduction. Energy yields of 65.6% and 50.6%, respectively for the SMR and biomass processes have been obtained with process costs of 201.2 and 330.1 USD/MWh. Associated with literature data, the optimized process designs developed in this project allow to assess the potential of a biomass feedstock for ammonia as transportation fuel.