Simulación de la síntesis de amoníaco en cascada impulsado por hidrógeno como energía renovable

Abstract

The aim of this research work was to simulate and validate a new configuration of cascaded ammonia synthesis driven by hydrogen as renewable energy which is used to predict the amount of ammonia production (molar flow) and the energy efficiency of the process. For the development of the simulation in DWSIM software, the types of reactors, the thermodynamic package and certain properties such as pressure, temperature, molar flow and enthalpy were established and chosen for the currents and equipment of the flow diagram. In the case of storage tanks, a standard volume was set; values were set for the pipe according to ASTM standards and hydraulic properties, where the pipe schedules and materials were specified. These properties work well for the industrial process. By means of sensitivity analysis, it was shown that pressure and temperature are key variables to achieve good ammonia conversion, with a percentage increase of 0.65% and 0.84% respectively. The simulation allowed to obtain an energy efficiency of 68.55% through the energy flows of equipment and currents; and 7.2 kmol/s of the amount of ammonia production were quantified by means of the feeding currents (N2 and H2) that enter the equilibrium reactors placed in series. This proposal shows to be more efficient since it yields a percentage error no greater than 18% of the results obtained in the simulation compared to the reference, indicating that it does not present significant differences between the values analyzed. However, it is recommended to expand the operating pressure and temperature range in order to achieve higher ammonia conversion rates and to serve as a guide for rigorous industrial processes or to establish improvements.