EVOLUTION AND PROSPECTS OF ENERGY AND RESOURCE SAVING APPROACHES IN AMMONIA TECHNOLOGY

Nitrogen is one of the nutrients required for plant nutrition. The problem of fixing atmospheric nitrogen continues to be relevant at the present time. If at the beginning of the 20th century the problem was solved in the direction of ammonia synthesis, today the search trend has shifted to energy and resource saving. The presence of a strong triple chemical bond in the nitrogen molecule determines the high energy intensity of industrial production of bound nitrogen compounds. This review article is examined the evolution of ammonia technology, as the most common compound of fixed nitrogen, from the standpoint of improving approaches to energy and resource saving. The existing high rates of consumption of fossil carbon fuels, especially natural gas, which is currently the main raw material for the production of ammonia, and the associated annual growing emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, require scientists around the world to research for alternative methods of industrial production of ammonia. In this article, an attempt is made to identify the features and chronological framework of the main stages in the development of approaches to energy and resource saving in ammonia technology. The methods of improvement and contributing factors in relation to the stages of development are determined. A comparative assessment of the known options for the technology of ammonia and bound nitrogen compounds in terms of resource and energy consumption at different stages of development is given. Comparison of the power technology units for ammonia synthesis operating in Russia in terms of resource and energy consumption is performed. It is shown that the current state of ammonia technology is characterized by an almost complete exhaustion of possible options for further energy and resource saving of known technological schemes. It is shown that ammonia technologies using natural gas in the future will no longer meet the tightening requirements for the level of carbon dioxide emissions. The estimation of energy consumption of alternative methods of ammonia production is given.