Techno-economic analysis on recent heterogeneous catalysts for ammonia synthesis

The economic performance of recently developed catalysts for ammonia synthesis, Ru/Ca(NH2)2 and Ru/Pr2O3, are evaluated by process simulation using ASPEN Plus. The results show that catalyst costs are high due to expensive ruthenium; thus, the catalysts' lifetime significantly influences the total cost. Besides, the new catalysts are advantageous when the electricity cost is high and the production scale is small, which are the characteristics of the case in which renewable energy is employed. Finally, the future direction of the catalyst developments is discussed.