Feasibility of electrolyzing ammonia effluents for the production of hydrogen

The technical feasibility of electrolyzing ammonia found in municipal waste waters influents and, industrial and agricultural effluents for the removal of ammonia and the production of hydrogen to be used in fuel cells is studied. The electrolysis of ammonia for the production of hydrogen requires less energy than the electrolysis for water for the production of hydrogen. Theoretically, the hydrogen produced from the ammonia would be able to provide enough energy to power the electrolysis system. This system not only removes ammonia from the waste streams, but also creates a non-fossil-fuel based source of hydrogen. The concentration range of ammonia studied is 0.5-50 mM. The first electrode substrate studied was Raney nickel. The carbon fiber electrodes were more reactive, more thermodynamically efficient and did not show any aging. The carbon fiber substrate was selected as the better electrode. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AIChE Annual Meeting and Fall Showcase (Cincinnati, OH 10/30/2005-11/4/2005).