Thermodynamic assessment of chemical looping combustion and solar thermal methane cracking-based integrated system for green ammonia production

To attain sustainability, effective use of resources became a basic need for new energy systems. The present study considers a novel integrated system for greener ammonia synthesis using hydrogen produced from solar thermal cracking of methane. The system utilizes chemical looping combustion for the production of electricity with the advantage of carbon capture. The first law and second law analysis of the subsystems and overall system provide deep insights into the performance of the proposed system. The effects of various parameters such as reference temperature, air reactor temperature, ammonia reaction temperature and pressure on energy and exergy efficiencies of component and overall system are analyzed. Overall system energy and exergy efficiencies of 28.8% and 25.8%, respectively are obtained, whereas the subsystems are also found to have energy efficiencies ranging between 18.8 and 42.9%. The highest exergy destruction rate of 20.9 MW is observed for solar thermal cracking. The proposed system can help in the mitigation of carbon emissions accounted for the production of ammonia.