West of Mpls MN about 50 miles on Hwy 12 | These folks say I might be drying corn, and fueling my tractors with ammonia produced from wind power here in MN someday. no pipeline needed...maybe?
https://wcroc.cfans.umn.edu/wcroc-news/ammonia-wind
Ammonia Production from Wind Energy Gaining Momentum
By Michael Reese, WCROC Renewable Energy Director
February 2018
This past fall, Minneapolis was again host to the NH3 Fuel Conference on November 1st and 2nd. Following the 14th annual conference, the West Central Research and Outreach Center (WCROC) hosted program leaders from the US Department of Energy ARPA-E REFUEL program (Washington DC), researchers from Siemens (Germany and UK), and IHI Corporation (Japan). The guests toured the Renewable Hydrogen and Ammonia Pilot Plant and discussed research efforts with the renewable energy team.
The second project funded by ENRTF uses ammonia from the WCROC pilot plant to displace diesel fuel in tractors. The technology which allows this conversion is being tested within the U of MN Department of Mechanical Engineering. The next step is to convert a WCROC tractor to run on ammonia. Field testing of this technology will begin this summer at the WCROC. In a third project, the renewable energy team was part of a successful grant application to the US DOE REFUEL program in collaboration with the Department of Chemical Engineering, the National Renewable Energy Lab (Golden, CO), and Proton On-site (Wallingford, CT) which is a leading manufacturer of electrolyzers. The objective of the project is to further develop a proprietary absorbent enhanced ammonia-production technology, scale up the technology, and test at the WCROC pilot plant beginning in the fall of 2018.
A possible next step is to study the possibility of using ammonia as fuel within a grain dryer. The Renewable Energy Program has a strategic plan to reduce fossil energy consumption in production agriculture. To accomplish this goal, we are combining renewable energy generation and energy efficiency to better utilize energy on the farm. Grain drying is a major consumer of energy but is not one that matches well with current renewable energy technologies since high amounts of energy are required in a short duration of time. One possible answer may be in the form of ammonia. The concept would allow for the use of ammonia seasonally as needed such as for fertilizer, transportation fuel, electrical energy generation, and then combusted in a grain dryer. We are in the process of evaluating the concept and discussing potential collaborations within the University to submit grant proposals.
https://nh3fuelassociation.org/2013/08/28/ammonia-production-using-w...
The University of Minnesota Wind to Ammonia Facility is a pilot scale plant that uses electricity from a co-located commercial-scale wind turbine to power ammonia production. Life cycle assessment of ammonia production was performed using preliminary ammonia production energy data from facility startup, input/output predictions based on equipment design, and engineering estimates of the facilities production capabilities. The early results indicated that renewably produced ammonia requires around 60 Gj of electricity per tonne of ammonia. Though this is considerably more total energy than conventional fossil fuel based produced ammonia, it requires far less fossil energy and results in far fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Even after factoring in facility construction, maintenance, and infrastructure use, fossil energy and greenhouse gases were considerably lower.
Edited by CMN 2/16/2019 07:49
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Ammonia pipeline to shut down
