Younger Suk Jo, 34, got here up with a attainable resolution in an unlikely chemical: ammonia. Amogy, a startup Jo cofounded in 2020, is constructing programs that may use ammonia, sometimes a part of fertilizer, as a gas to energy vans and ships.
One in all ammonia’s most engaging attributes is its vitality density, which means it could pack quite a lot of vitality into a comparatively small house. Liquid ammonia can carry about thrice extra vitality than compressed hydrogen, a number one clear gas immediately.
For Amogy, the important thing to utilizing ammonia in transportation is pulling it aside. One of many core applied sciences within the startup’s ammonia-to-power system is a chemical reactor referred to as a cracker. This reactor breaks ammonia down into nitrogen, which could be safely launched into the ambiance, and hydrogen. That hydrogen can then be utilized in a gas cell to provide electrical energy.
Ammonia cracking isn’t a brand new course of, however Jo and his co-inventors developed a chemical catalyst that may assist the response run at a decrease temperature, permitting the method to be accomplished onboard automobiles. The workforce additionally developed a reactor that may run extra effectively than the present commonplace, turning roughly 40% of the vitality within the ammonia into electrical energy.
Amogy has demonstrated its expertise in a variety of automobiles, beginning in 2021 with a small drone whose complete energy demand was about 5 kilowatts and progressing to a semi truck, which ran on the corporate’s expertise in January 2023 and used about 300 kW on common. Jo has overseen this scaling course of, retrofitting every car to run utilizing ammonia gas.
