The Making of Hydrogen and Ammonia

Abstract

After WWI, the demand for liquid fuels such as aviation gasoline and motor fuel seems to go stronger than in the time prior to the war. In the meanwhile, the diesel engine that Diesel invented in the 1890s had finally become mature and started to be deployed by industries for different applications as well as a prime driver, which came right in to compete with the producer gas fueled gas engines; this in essence stalled further growth of the gas engine market. What is worse is the fact that the conventional coking facility for iron and steel industry also started to implement its operation by recovering the coke oven gas (“COG”) as a fuel for internal use and for export, which was pretty much wasted previously. The COG is a far better fuel gas than coal gas and producer gas in terms of heating value. Hence in some way, the development of industrial synthetic technologies provided a great opportunity for coal gas to stay relevant and to grow and serve a completely new industry that led to the establishment of the modern chemical and petrochemical industries. What is worth noting though is the fact that each of the emerging synthetic technologies from the synthetic ammonia, the methanol synthesis, the hydrogenation of coal to the Fischer–Tropsch process has its own set of specific and rigid requirements on what comes in with the syngas, hydrogen and carbon monoxide. It has to be of high purity and free from other impurities including tar, particulates, moisture and the poisonous sulfur compounds and carbon oxides to the catalysts for some cases.