Natural gas electrochemical conversion and synthesis of ammonia from natural gas or hydrogen at atmospheric pressure with doped LaAlO3

Previous works have already studied the mechanism of ammonia synthesis from nitrogen and hydrogen at atmospheric pressure using solid-state proton conductors as the electrolytes [6-10]. The conductivity of the doped LaAlO3 (La0.9sr0.1A1O3-δ and La0.9Sr0.lA10.9Mg0.1O3-δ) was investigated in various atmospheres in temperature range from 400 to 800 C, and demonstrated its promising use for ammonia synthesis. Using the doped LaAlO3 as solid electrolyte, ammonia was synthesized not only from hydrogen and nitrogen but also natural gas and nitrogen at atmospheric pressure in the solid-state proton conducting cell reactor, which also directly evidenced the protonic conduction in these A3+B3+O3 - type perovskites at intermediate temperature. The rate of evolution of ammonia using La0.9Sr0.1A1O3-δ or La0.9Sr0.1A10.9Mg0.1O3-δ as solid electrolyte from hydrogen / nitrogen is up to 3.83x 10-9, 5.35x 10-9mol. s-1. cm-2, and from natural gas / nitrogen is up to 3.31 x10-9, 3.42x 10-9 mol. s-1. cm-2, respectively. The optimal condition of the ammonia production was determined.