Ammonia Cracker Plant Hydrogen Production For Glass Floating Line Steel Industry

Ammonia Cracking, Hydrogen Production, For Glass floating Line, Steel Industry

Ammonia Cracking, Hydrogen Production, For Glass Floating Lines, Steel Industry

Hydrogen is indispensable for the bright hardening of metals. But, viewed from the standpoint of safety,
hydrogen gas is by no means a good atmosphere. Dissociated ammonia atmosphere or
forming gas is the only furnace atmosphere that can make up the demerits of hydrogen and function
nearly 100% as if it were hydrogen gas. There are cases where forming gas cannot replace pure
hydrogen, but such cases are very rare. For almost all applications involved, developing a gas atmosphere
will answer the purpose.
An ammonia cracker, NH3-Cracker, or hydrogen generator is used for the production of forming gas. Hydrogen
and Nitrogen is generated in a cost-effective way in a volume ratio of 3: 1 or in a weight ratio of 14 : 3.

The NH3 is coming from bottles or from an ammonia tank. The ammonia gas is preheated in a heat
exchanger and vaporizer and then cracked in the central furnace unit. The furnace is electrically
heated by special LGO heating elements.

The dissociation of ammonia gas NH3 takes place at a temperature of 920°C in the presence of a
special nickel catalyst in an electrically heated furnace.
                                 2NH₃------------N₂ + 3 H₂
The cracked gas then passes the heat exchanger for cooling and for preheating the incoming gas.
This way and in combination with the low power consuming LGO heating
elements, it can be made sure that only a minimum of electricity has to be used for the cracking process.

Technical figures;

The gas made in this method is a good protective gas that can be used widely in the semiconductor
industry, metallurgical industry, and other industries and science research that need protective gas.
1. Ammonia is easy to decompose: With not very high pressure, under catalysts, and
a temperature controlled at 750~800ºC, the ammonia will nearly completely decompose, with the
decomposing rate reaching 99.9%.
2. Easy to refine the gas: As the raw material, the liquid ammonia is of very high purity. The volatile
impurities are only little inert gas and water dissolved in the liquid ammonia and there is nearly no
oxygen. Meanwhile, under such conditions, ammonia decomposition is irreversible. So the water
can be removed by adsorbing with a dew point of -60 ºC while the gas doing through the 5A molecular
sieve. In this way, the nonmetallic elements, for example, chlorine and oxygen which are unpopular in
the semiconductor industry can be removed.
3. In China, the liquid ammonia as raw material is accessible at a low price, and the raw material
consumption is also relatively smaller (In theory, each Kg of ammonia can create 2.64 Nm3 mixed gas).

Properties and Characteristics: 

1) Save water and electricity: No water is used in the ammonia decomposing process, thus saving 

water effectively; The heat generated from the decomposition reaction is used to preheat the ammonia 

so as to save electricity. 
2) Resistance wire can be replaced quickly: It can be replaced only within a few minutes, with no need to 

stop the gas production process. Therefore, the case of shutting down the furnace to cool down and 

then opening the furnace to replacing the resistance wire is avoided. 
3) Low investment and convenient use: Matured technology, compact structure, low space requirement 

and no need for construction investment, easy operation, low price, or high economy to extract the pure 

hydrogen; In order to generate hydrogen on spot, the only thing to do is to connect power and gas 

source. 
4) Wide application scope: It can satisfy the need of most hydrogen use, especially in the dominating 

fields of heat treatment, powder metallurgy, electronics, and so on. 
5) Low operation cost: Less investment, liquid ammonia as the source is cheap, low energy consumption, 

high efficiency, low operation cost; It is the most economical source of the mixed protective atmosphere 

of nitrogen and hydrogen.

Ammonia Cracker Plant Parameters

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