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HomePosts Tagged "Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur"
Agro Universities, Biofuel industry, India, R&D

Ammonia is one of the key elements in the fertilizer industry as well as in paper, textile, and rubber industries.

Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur researcher Dr. Amitava Banerjee along with his team has identified promising single-atom catalysts for Nitrogen Reduction Reaction (NRR) required for the synthesis of “Green Ammonia”.  At present, the conventional process of synthesizing green ammonia has an enormous carbon footprint, as it emits 3 per cent of global carbon dioxide and consumes 2 per cent of the world’s total energy production. Electrochemical synthesis route could be a vital choice for its synthesis, where Nitrogen Reduction Reaction (NRR) is one of the hardest reactions to carry out due to the strong N-N triple bond coupled with poor nitrogen adsorption on many catalysts and presence of competitive hydrogen evolution reaction. So, the researchers focused on electrochemical NRR in order to synthesize “Green Ammonia”.

Currently, the team is focusing on the design of electrocatalysts for green ammonia and green urea production. Both will have less, or negligible carbon footprint compared to existing conventional processes. Urea is a vital compound for societal development and the high presence of 46 per cent nitrogen (by weight) makes it a major player of the fertilizer industry. Ammonia is also one of the key elements in the fertilizer industry as well as in paper, textile, rubber industries. Moreover, it could be a potential carrier for hydrogen for easy transportation and storage of the fuel, which may speed up the hydrogen economy in our country by utilizing the existing ammonia pipelines.

Talking about the significance of the research, Dr. Amitava Banerjee, Assistant Professor, Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering, IIT Jodhpur, said, “The recent surge in interest in the electrochemical synthesis of NH₃ has highlighted the inadequacy of Nitrogen Reduction Reaction (NRR) catalysts. So, our group’s primary objective is to computationally design the NRR catalysts and providing insight for the experimentally obtained NRR catalytic mechanism.”

He further added, “Our research methodology includes in-depth understanding of density functional theory-based tools in combination of high-throughput structural search and materials informatics. So that we can cover efficiently a vast composition space as well as corresponding materials structures. No doubt this atomistic design insight will reduce the experimental time as well as resource-expenditures for searching suitable NRR catalysts.”

Ammonia is one of the key elements

Agro Universities, Agrotech, Biofuel industry, India, R&D

The catalyst maintains excellent reusability up to 10 test cycles towards bio-jet fuel.

The researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur have developed an abundantly available Iron based catalyst (Fe/Silica-Alumina) and utilized various non-edible oils and waste biomass to make the bio-jet fuel manufacturing process profitable, solving a problem that has inundated the industry for decades. This is an ingredient for cheaper, cleaner fuels that can transform the energy sector. Dr Rakesh K Sharma, Professor, Department of Chemistry, IIT Jodhpur, and his PhD scholar Bhagirath Saini have reinvented the way bio-jet-fuel is made from plant-based biomass.

With an estimated daily fuel demand of more than 800 million litters daily, the global aviation sector is incredibly energy-intensive and almost entirely reliant on petroleum-based fuels. Unlike other energy sectors, such as ground transportation or residential and commercial buildings, the aviation industry can’t be easily shifted to renewable energy sources using existing technologies. Hence the plant-based sustainable bio-jet fuels suggested by IIT Jodhpur researchers could provide a competitive alternative to conventional petroleum fuels and have the potential to play a big role in greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The research was featured in the cover-page of Sustainable Energy & Fuels journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, London.

The present study has great significance for developing aviation fuel under relatively mild reaction conditions, i.e., low H2 pressure and high reusability (up to 10 test cycles), using the earth-abundant Fe/SiO2–Al2O3 catalyst. The catalyst homologous of nature clay that has been successful story from Prof. Sharma’s research group. The catalyst maintains excellent reusability up to 10 cycles (but works well for >50 cycles) towards bio-jet fuel. The results are promising, especially considering the catalyst’s high acidity and unique textural properties under relatively mild process conditions, such as low H2 pressure under solvent-free conditions. The work is being supported by Department of Biotechnology, DBT PAN-IIT Center for Bioenergy.

Speaking about the significance of the research, Dr. Rakesh K Sharma, Professor, Department of Chemistry, IIT Jodhpur, said, “What is really impressive about our work is the unprecedented bio jet fuel selectivity from biomass using earth abundant reusable heterogeneous iron catalyst under mild conditions. The process shows not only increased efficiency but also decreased emissions of greenhouse gases in airline sector.”

The future scope of the developed sulphur-free and highly dispersed non-noble metal-based catalyst for bio-jet fuel production is promising. Scaling up the catalyst production and optimizing the manufacturing process for commercial-scale applications is a potential avenue. Further research can focus on process optimization to enhance catalytic activity, selectivity, and conversion efficiency, considering factors such as temperature, pressure, and reaction time.

The catalyst maintains excellent reusability up to