Abstract:

In this paper, ammonia fuel as energy storage medium is introduced with its advantages of no pollution, high volumetric energy density and convenient transportation and storage in contrast with typical fossil fuels at first. And ammonia fuel energy storage system shows great advantages in large scale and less restriction of geographical conditions when compared with many other traditional energy storage methods. Besides, the energy consumption as well as the energy efficiency of several ammonia synthesis systems is calculated theoretically and industrially. The biggest problem associated with the cyclic and intermittent energy productions like nuclear energy, wind power, solar power and other renewable energy, is the surplus electricity utilization. Finally, this study proposes a new solution, where there are no carbon emissions upstream or downstream, that ammonia fuel could be compounded using valley power or abandoned electricity and then generating electricity when the supply of electricity is insufficient. It’s demonstrated that the life-cycle energy storage efficiency of ammonia fuel system related aforementioned synthesis process is 25%～40% and the conversion rate of electric power is 2.5～4.0 kW·h / 10 kW·h.

Key words: ammonia fuel, ammonia synthesis, storage energy efficiency, life-cycle