She also is co-director at the University-wide Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern. Murphy Professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering with additional appointments in applied physics and chemistry. If you give us ammonia, the electrochemical systems we developed can convert that ammonia to fuel-cell-ready, clean hydrogen on-site at any scale.” We deliver lots of ammonia all over the world for fertilizer.

“It’s difficult and expensive to transport hydrogen, but an extensive ammonia delivery system already exists.

“The bane for hydrogen fuel cells has been the lack of delivery infrastructure,” said Sossina Haile, lead author of the study. Northwestern’s technological breakthrough overcomes several existing barriers to the production of clean hydrogen from ammonia. The idea of using ammonia as a carrier for hydrogen delivery has gained traction in recent years because ammonia is much easier to liquify than hydrogen and is therefore much easier to store and transport.

Outlined in a recent publication in the journal Joule, the new technique is a major step forward for enabling a zero-pollution, hydrogen-fueled economy. Northwestern University researchers have developed a highly effective, environmentally friendly method for converting ammonia into hydrogen.

Making crack with ammonia video