Burning ammonia could help power data centers from all over the world in the future. However, doing so with current ammonia production technology could leave a catastrophic carbon footprint. But Fujitsu believes that it can change this technology so that it does not harm the environment, and thus make it possible for ammonia to be one of the future energy sources for data centers.
To achieve this, Fujitsu is working with a startup from Iceland, Atmoniathat is in charge of researching the production of ammonia in a sustainable way. Fujitsu is collaborating with her on this research by providing the high-performance computing and Artificial Intelligence she needs.
This Icelandic startup will therefore use Fujitsu’s computing resources for the discovery of new materials, as well as candidate catalysts for the synthesis of ammonia. Last April, in fact, Atmonia announced that it was researching new methods to produce ammonia using only water, nitrogen from the air and clean electricity.
Then, the company noted that “retrofitting the industrial process to use hydrogen from the electrolysis of water is possible. however, it is a more energy-intensive path, and does not sit well with the intermittent nature of electricity from renewable sources, such as the sun and wind, since the Haber-Bosch process requires a continuous source of hydrogen to maintain processes and flows of operations, and which in turn requires an uninterrupted source of electricity«.
Atmonia hopes to further advance and improve the efficiency of its research on catalysts for ammonia production by conducting several tests that will simulate chemical reactions using quantum chemical calculations. All to produce ammonia that does not harm the environment, since the method currently used for this, the Haber-Bosch method, which produces ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen, accounts for 1% of annual global emissions of carbon dioxide. carbon, more than any other chemical manufacturing reaction at an industrial level.
If sustainable ammonia can be produced, it could be used to generate electricity to power data centers, which would go a long way toward reducing the carbon footprint of the tech sector.
