PACE: Power to Ammonia, a Carbon-free Energy Vector and Beyond

PACE aims at efficient electro-catalytic power-to-ammonia conversion for chemical energy storage. Being recognized as a highly innovative concept in addressing the energy and climate challenges, PACE received seed funding from the Flanders’ Moonshot sprint project “Power2Chemicals”. The two Leuven teams have recently filed two patents on the catalytic materials and on the reactor concept for the day-and-night operation, also highligted in our recent joint publication (10.1021/acsenergylett.0c00455). Additional resources and efforts are necessary to 1) accelerate the development and implementation of the process, 2) to come over the current bottleneck of a slow reaction rates, and 3) to improve the catalysts' long-term stability. In this C3, we will boost the reaction rates through further material development and process optimisation to achieve a stand-alone device prototype. This will further strengthen our IP portfolio around this technology and will leverage valorisation through licensing.

Keywords:Electrocatalysis, Power-to-ammonia, Nitrogen reduction, Chemical energy storage

Disciplines:Catalysis, Electrochemistry, Nanomaterials, Reacting systems