Prospects of energy-efficient power generation system with ammonia as hydrogen carrier.

This paper explores a novel method of focuses on utilizing ammonia as a hydrogen carrier that can be decomposed to produce hydrogen, the combustion of which produces steam for generating power in turbines. The simulation for such a process is performed on ASPEN Plus software. The key steps include compressing the ammonia and passing it through a fluidized bed reactor (FBR) for its decomposition, subsequently compressing the products before combusting the hydrogen with compressed air in a combustor and extracting power from the hot products through a series of turbines. The article examines in detail the effect of different parameters on the performance of the individual components as well as the overall process. Specifically, considerable emphasis is placed on the effects of varying pressures and temperatures on the functioning of the FBR at different catalyst loadings, their effects on the combustor performance and the dependence of the overall process on the air flowrate in the combustor. The comprehensive analysis elucidated on the energy efficiency of the process and it identified conditions at 2 bar pressure and 550 °C temperature as being the most favorable for ammonia decomposition and subsequent turbine power output while lean hydrogen combustion with excess air making the inlet hydrogen concentration less than 20% resulted in optimum temperatures at the turbine inlet. • The paper explores ammonia as a hydrogen carrier in the power plant industry through ASPEN PLUS process simulations. • The initial step is to decompose ammonia into nitrogen and hydrogen in a fluidized bed reactor, the optimum operating condition of which turns out to be 2 bar pressure and 550 °C. • The next steps involve mixing air with the decomposition products, pressurizing them to 40-60 bar, combusting hydrogen in a plug flow reactor to produce steam and finally expanding it in a series of turbines to generate power. • Detailed flow and more importantly, energy analysis of all the process units show ammonia as a very effective hydrogen carrier for applications in power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]