Solar Urea: Towards a Sustainable Fertilizer Industry

  • Urea, an agricultural fertilizer, nourishes humanity. The century‐old Bosch–Meiser process provides the world's urea. It is multi‐step, consumes enormous amounts of non‐renewable energy, and has a large CO2 footprint. Thus, developing an eco‐friendly synthesis for urea is a priority. Herein we report a single‐step Pd/LTA‐3A catalyzed synthesis of urea from CO2 and NH3 under ambient conditions powered solely by solar energy. Pd nanoparticles serve the dual function of catalyzing the dissociation of NH3 and providing the photothermal driving force for urea formation, while the absorption capacity of LTA‐3A removes by‐product H2O to shift the equilibrium towards urea production. The solar urea conversion rate from NH3 and CO2 is 87 μmol g−1 h−1. This advance represents a first step towards the use of solar energy in urea production. It provides insights into green fertilizer production, and inspires the vision of sustainable, modular plants for distributed production of urea on farms.

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Author:Meikun Xia, Chengliang MaoORCiD, Alan Gu, Athanasios A. Tountas, Chenyue Qiu, Thomas E. Wood, Young Feng Li, Ulrich Ulmer, Yangfan Xu, Camilo J. Viasus, Jessica YeORCiD, Chenxi Qian, Geoffrey OzinORCiD
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.202110158
ISSN:0044-8249
Parent Title (English):Angewandte Chemie
Publisher:Wiley
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of first Publication:2021/11/03
Reviewed:Begutachtet/Reviewed
Release Date:2024/08/07
Volume:134
Issue:1
Pagenumber:6
institutes:Fakultät Verfahrenstechnik
Institut für Angewandte Wasserstoffforschung, Elektro- und Thermochemische Energiesysteme (H2Ohm)
Research Themes:Energie & Ressourcen
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