# US 11,994,062 B2 · Systems and methods for processing ammonia > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,994,062 B2 - Document ID: US11994062B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 18/454,638 - Filed: 2023-08-23 - Published: 2023-12-07 - Granted: 2024-05-28 - Earliest claimed: 2021-05-14 - Assignees: AMOGY Inc. - Applicants: Amogy Inc. - Inventors: Young Suk Jo; Hyunho Kim; Gregory Robert Johnson; Matthew Jacob Montgomery - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11994062B2 ## CPC - F02C 3/22: the fuel or oxidant being gaseous at standard temperature and pressure (F02C3/28 takes precedence) - F02C 3/30: Adding water, steam or other fluids {for influencing combustion, e.g. to obtain cleaner exhaust gases (F02C7/141, F02C7/30, F01D21/00, F01K21/04, F23D11/10 take precedence)} - B01J 8/001: {Controlling catalytic processes (B01J8/1809 takes precedence)} - B01J 8/0496: {Heating or cooling the reactor} - C01B 3/047: Decomposition of ammonia - F02C 7/14: of fluids in the plant {, e.g. lubricant or fuel (F02C7/185 takes precedence)} - F02C 7/22: Fuel supply systems - B01J 2208/00415: electric resistance heaters - B01J 2208/00504: by means of a burner - B01J 2208/0053: Controlling multiple zones along the direction of flow, e.g. pre-heating and after-cooling - B01J 2208/00539: Pressure - B01J 2208/00548: Flow - B64D 37/30: Fuel systems for specific fuels - C01B 2203/0277: containing a catalytic decomposition step - C01B 2203/066: with fuel cells - C01B 2203/0822: the fuel containing hydrogen - F05D 2220/323: for aircraft propulsion, e.g. jet engines - F05D 2260/213: by the provision of a heat exchanger within the cooling circuit - Y02E 60/36: Hydrogen production from non-carbon containing sources, e.g. by water electrolysis - Y02E 60/50: Fuel cells - F02C: GAS-TURBINE PLANTS; AIR INTAKES FOR JET-PROPULSION PLANTS; CONTROLLING FUEL SUPPLY IN AIR-BREATHING JET-PROPULSION PLANTS (construction of turbines F01D; jet-propulsion plants F02K; construction of compressors or fans F04; generating combustion products of high pressure or high velocity F23R; using gas turbines in compression refrigeration plants F25B11/00) - B01J: CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOID CHEMISTRY; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS - C01B: NON-METALLIC ELEMENTS; COMPOUNDS THEREOF; {METALLOIDS OR COMPOUNDS THEREOF NOT COVERED BY SUBCLASS C01C} - B64D: EQUIPMENT FOR FITTING IN OR TO AIRCRAFT; FLIGHT SUITS; PARACHUTES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF POWER PLANTS OR PROPULSION TRANSMISSIONS IN AIRCRAFT - F05D: INDEXING SCHEME FOR ASPECTS RELATING TO NON-POSITIVE-DISPLACEMENT MACHINES OR ENGINES, GAS-TURBINES OR JET-PROPULSION PLANTS - Y02E: REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION ## Abstract The present disclosure provides systems and methods for processing ammonia. The system may comprise one or more reactor modules configured to generate hydrogen from a source material comprising ammonia. The hydrogen generated by the one or more reactor modules may be used to provide additional heating of the reactor modules (e.g., via combustion of the hydrogen), or may be provided to one or more fuel cells for the generation of electrical energy. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An ammonia reforming system, comprising: one or more reactors comprising one or more catalysts therein, wherein the one or more reactors are configured to decompose ammonia (NH3) to generate a reformate stream comprising at least hydrogen (H2), nitrogen (N2), and unconverted ammonia, wherein the one or more reactors are in fluid communication with one or more storage tanks; a plurality of heating elements in thermal communication with the one or more catalysts, wherein the plurality of heating elements comprise at least one electrical heater and at least one combustion heater, wherein the at least one combustion heater is configured to combust at least a portion of the H2 in the reformate stream to heat the one or more reactors to a temperature within a target temperature range; a fuel cell configured to consume a first fraction of the H2 in the reformate stream from the one or more reactors to generate electricity; and an adsorbent configured to adsorb the unconverted ammonia, wherein the system is configured to desorb the unconverted ammonia from the adsorbent using an exhaust of the at least one combustion heater to regenerate the adsorbent. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The ammonia reforming system of claim 1, further comprising one or more heat exchangers configured to exchange heat between one or more flows of the NH3 from the one or more storage tanks and one or more flows from the one or more reactors. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The ammonia reforming system of claim 1, further comprising one or more temperature sensors configured to measure one or more temperatures of the one or more reactors. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The ammonia reforming system of claim 3, wherein the at least one electrical heater is configured to reduce heating power based at least in part on the one or more temperatures of the one or more reactors being equal to or greater than a predetermined target temperature. ### Claim 5 (depends on 3) The ammonia reforming system of claim 3, wherein the at least one electrical heater is configured to increase heating power based at least in part on the one or more temperatures of the one or more reactors being less than a predetermined target temperature. ### Claim 6 (depends on 3) The ammonia reforming system of claim 3, further comprising one or more air supply units configured to supply oxygen to the at least one combustion heater. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The ammonia reforming system of claim 6, wherein the one or more air supply units are configured to decrease a flowrate of the oxygen supplied to the at least one combustion heater based at least in part on the one or more temperatures of the one or more reactors being equal to or greater than a predetermined target temperature. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The ammonia reforming system of claim 1, wherein the at least one combustion heater is configured to combust a second fraction of the H2 in the reformate stream to heat the one or more reactors, wherein the second fraction of the H2 is an exit flow from the fuel cell. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The ammonia reforming system of claim 1, wherein the fuel cell is configured to consume the first fraction of the H2 at a hydrogen utilization rate that is less than a predetermined threshold value. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9, wherein the hydrogen utilization rate is at least about 40% of the H2 generated from the one or more reactors. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The ammonia reforming system of claim 1, further comprising a controller programmed to perform one or more of the following: i. decompose the NH3 using the one or more catalysts of the one or more reactors to generate the reformate stream; ii. use the at least one combustion heater to combust at least a portion of the reformate stream from the one or more reactors to heat the one or more reactors to the temperature within the target temperature range; or iii. use the fuel cell to consume the first fraction of the H2 in the reformate stream to generate electricity. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The ammonia reforming system of claim 1, further comprising a battery; wherein the battery is configured to power at least part of an electrical load in response to the electrical load being greater than the electricity generated by the fuel cell; and a controller configured to perform one or more of the following in response to a state of charge of the battery being less than a charge threshold: (1) increase a flowrate of at least one of the ammonia or the additional ammonia, or (2) limit the electrical load. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The ammonia reforming system of claim 1, wherein the fuel cell is configured to power an electrical load; wherein the system further comprises a controller configured to perform one or more of the following in response to the electrical load being less than the electricity generated by the fuel cell: (1) charging a battery; (2) decreasing a flowrate of the ammonia. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The ammonia reforming system of claim 1, wherein the combustion heater is configured to combust the desorbed unconverted ammonia. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The ammonia reforming system of claim 1, further comprising a heat exchanger configured to transfer heat from the combustion exhaust to the adsorbent to desorb the unconverted ammonia from the adsorbent. ### Claim 16 An ammonia decomposition system, comprising: one or more reactors comprising one or more electrically-heated reactors comprising one or more catalysts, and one or more combustion-heated reactors comprising one or more catalysts; at least one electrical heater configured to heat the one or more electrically-heated reactors of the one or more reactors to a first target temperature range, wherein the at least one electrical heater is in thermal communication with the one or more catalysts of the one or more electrically-heated reactors; wherein the one or more electrically-heated reactors are configured to decompose ammonia (NH3) at the first target temperature range to generate a reformate stream comprising hydrogen (H2), nitrogen (N2), and unconverted ammonia; at least one combustion heater configured to heat the one or more combustion-heated reactors to a second target temperature range by combusting at least part of the reformate stream, wherein the at least one combustion heater is in thermal communication with the one or more catalysts of the one or more combustion-heated reactors; wherein the one or more combustion-heated reactors are configured to decompose additional NH3 to generate an additional reformate stream comprising H2, N2, and unconverted ammonia; and an adsorbent configured to adsorb the unconverted ammonia in at least one of the reformate stream or the additional reformate stream, wherein the system is configured to desorb the unconverted ammonia from the adsorbent using an exhaust of the at least one combustion heater to regenerate the adsorbent. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 16, further comprising a controller programmed to perform one or more of the following: i. heat the at least one electrical heater to heat the one or more electrically-heated reactors of the one or more reactors to the first target temperature range, ii. decompose the NH3 at the first target temperature range using the one or more electrically-heated reactors to generate the reformate stream comprising H2, N2, and unconverted ammonia; iii. heat at least one combustion heater by combusting at least part of the reformate stream to heat the one or more combustion-heated reactors of the one or more reactors to the second target temperature range; or iv. decompose the additional NH3 using the one or more combustion-heated reactors to generate the additional reformate stream comprising H2, N2, and unconverted ammonia. ### Claim 18 (depends on 16) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 16, wherein the at least one combustion heater is further configured to combust at least part of the additional reformate stream. ### Claim 19 (depends on 18) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 18, further comprising a controller programmed to perform the following: increase a flowrate of at least one of the NH3 or the additional NH3 based at least in part on one or more temperatures of the one or more reactors being greater than a predetermined threshold temperature. ### Claim 20 (depends on 18) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 18, further comprising a controller programmed to perform the following: decrease a flowrate of air provided to the at least one combustion heater based at least in part on one or more temperatures of the one or more reactors being greater than a predetermined threshold temperature. ### Claim 21 (depends on 18) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 18, further comprising one or more fuel cells configured to receive at least one of the reformate stream or the additional reformate stream, and generate electricity by consuming a first fraction of at least one of the reformate stream or the additional reformate stream. ### Claim 22 (depends on 21) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 21, wherein the at least one combustion heater is configured to combust a second fraction of at least one of the reformate stream or the additional reformate stream as a combustion fuel, wherein the second fraction is an exit flow from the one or more fuel cells. ### Claim 23 (depends on 21) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 21, further comprising a controller programmed to reduce an H2 consumption rate of the one or more fuel cells based at least in part on a temperature of the one or more reactors being less than a threshold temperature. ### Claim 24 (depends on 21) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 21, further comprising a controller programmed to reduce the electricity generation of the one or more fuel cells, and to increase the amount of at least one of the reformate stream or the additional reformate stream combusted by the at least one combustion heater. ### Claim 25 (depends on 16) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 16, further comprising a controller programmed to perform the following based at least in part on detecting a fault in the ammonia decomposition system: modulate at least one of (1) a flowrate of at least one of the NH3, the additional NH3, the reformate stream, the additional reformate stream, or; (2) one or more pressures; or (3) one or more temperatures. ### Claim 26 (depends on 25) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 25, wherein the fault comprises an NH3 concentration being greater than a predetermined threshold concentration, wherein the NH3 concentration is measured in at least one of (i) the adsorbent or (ii) one or more fuel cells configured to generate electricity by consuming at least part of the H2 in at least one of the reformate stream or in the additional reformate stream. ### Claim 27 (depends on 25) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 25, wherein the fault comprises (i) a fracture of the one or more reactors, (ii) a leakage of ammonia, or (iii) an offset of a measured temperature of the one or more reactors from the target temperature range. ### Claim 28 (depends on 16) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 16, further comprising a fuel cell, and a controller programmed to perform the following based at least in part on detecting a fault in the ammonia decomposition system: reduce or shut down electricity generated by the fuel cell in response to detecting a fault. ### Claim 29 (depends on 28) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 28, wherein the fault comprises an NH3 concentration being greater than a predetermined threshold concentration, wherein the NH3 concentration is measured in at least one of (i) the adsorbent, or (ii) the fuel cell. ### Claim 30 (depends on 28) The ammonia decomposition system of claim 28, wherein the fault comprises (i) a fracture of the one or more reactors, (ii) a leakage of ammonia, or (iii) an offset of a measured temperature of the one or more reactors from the target temperature range.