Ambient pressure ammonia decomposition using Ga–Co supported catalytically active liquid metal solutions

Rothgängel P, Taccardi N, Folkard AL, Söllner J, Søgaard A, Körner A, Hutzler A, Thommes M, Haumann M, Wasserscheid P (2026)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2026

Journal

Catalysis: Science and Technology Royal Society of Chemistry

DOI: 10.1039/d6cy00362a

Abstract

Ga–Co supported catalytically active metal solutions (SCALMS) on silicon carbide (SiC) were successfully tested for ambient pressure ammonia decomposition in the temperature range between 480 and 580 °C. Comparison studies of a Ga59Co SCALMS system with their monometallic equivalents Co/SiC and Ga/SiC revealed a massively enhanced ammonia decomposition activity of the supported alloy catalyst. The Ga59Co/SiC outperformed a monometallic benchmark Co/SiC catalyst in terms of the Co specific H2 productivity by up to one order of magnitude. Monometallic Ga/SiC, in contrast, showed no activity for ammonia decomposition up to 580 °C. We report productivities of 487 gH2 gCo−1 h−1 at 5% conversion and 550 °C at a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 29 000 mLN gcat−1 h−1 for our SCALMS system. Apparent activation energies (EA,app) determined from temperature variation experiments give no indication for diffusion limitations under the applied reaction conditions. Therefore, we present a new catalyst material concept for ammonia decomposition with high potential for practical and technical application.

Authors with CRIS profile

Nicola Taccardi Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik (CRT) Aaron Luke Folkard Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik (CRT) Jakob Söllner Lehrstuhl für Thermische Verfahrenstechnik (TVT) Andreas Hutzler
Matthias Thommes Lehrstuhl für Thermische Verfahrenstechnik (TVT) Marco Haumann Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik (CRT) Peter Wasserscheid Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik (CRT)

Involved external institutions

Forschungszentrum Jülich / Research Centre Jülich (FZJ) DE Germany (DE) Helmholtz-Institut Erlangen-Nürnberg für Erneuerbare Energien (HI-ERN) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Rothgängel, P., Taccardi, N., Folkard, A.L., Söllner, J., Søgaard, A., Körner, A.,... Wasserscheid, P. (2026). Ambient pressure ammonia decomposition using Ga–Co supported catalytically active liquid metal solutions. Catalysis: Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1039/d6cy00362a

MLA:

Rothgängel, Philipp, et al. "Ambient pressure ammonia decomposition using Ga–Co supported catalytically active liquid metal solutions." Catalysis: Science and Technology (2026).

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