Condensation characteristics of ammonia vapor during supersonic separation: A novel approach to ammonia-hydrogen separation

Abstract

Ammonia has gained significant attention as a prospective hydrogen energy carrier. However, the effective separation of ammonia and hydrogen becomes a crucial aspect after the decomposition of ammonia into hydrogen. In this study, a novel method for ammonia separation is introduced, which leverages the phase transition behavior in supersonic flow. Consequently, this study presents the development of a mathematical model to elucidate the non-equilibrium condensation phenomenon of ammonia, and the accuracy of this model is validated. The simulation results reveal that, in comparison to classical nucleation theory (CNT) and internally consistent classical theory (ICCT), the Lothe-Pound (L-P) nucleation model more accurately characterizes the nucleation process of ammonia at low temperatures. Furthermore, numerical simulations demonstrated that increasing the inlet pressure from 1.2 bar to 1.8 bar led to a 2.66% enhancement in ammonia condensation efficiency. In contrast, raising the inlet temperature from 271 K to 283 K resulted in a decrease in condensation efficiency and a reduction in the radius of the exit droplets, potentially affecting subsequent separation efficiency. When the inlet ammonia molar fraction was elevated from 11% to 14%, the ammonia condensation efficiency increased from 13.7% to 14.5%, with only a minor decrease in outlet droplet radius (from 3.42 × 10−7 m to 3.39 × 10−7 m). These findings indicate that increasing pressure, decreasing temperature, and raising ammonia concentration can all stimulate ammonia condensation. These results have potential implications for the design and optimization of separators.