Can ammonia be fuel?

NH3! What is it? Ammonia!

A colorless, very foul-smelling, poisonous, caustic and flammable gas consisting of one nitrogen and three hydrogen atoms. 

In fact, what we know as ammonia is actually water with a certain amount of ammonia gas dissolved in its liquid form. Of course this is dirty water, not water to drink.

When I was at Kuleli, in the Herzegovina camp we went to in the summers, the water flowing from the fountains would smell of ammonia. I don't like the smell.

Ammonia is an important industrial inorganic raw material. Why inorganic? Because it has no carbon atoms!

It is mostly used in the fertilizer industry. But it is also used in the pharmaceutical industry and as a cleaning material in homes. Because ammonia is also a good dirt remover.

But it is a toxic chemical!

When there is more than a certain amount of ammonia in the air, and if the air is humid enough, it can react with water molecules, accumulate on the ground and pose a fatal danger to human health when inhaled.

It can also cause the death of fish and living creatures when it mixes with water in places such as streams and lakes.

In addition to all these, there is a very small amount of ammonia in our body as it is involved in the production of protein, one of the cornerstones of life.

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Toyota is a car brand that is moving more slowly than its competitors when it comes to electric cars.

The Japanese don't think the transition to electric cars will be as fast as expected.

Japan's fierce rivalry with China also plays a big role in this. Today, electric cars are still dependent on China, especially in battery technologies. 

Although all automobile companies, including Tesla, are working on the production of batteries with very different materials, in practice, there is no one who can produce these car batteries cheaper than China, and this situation causes Japan to have some hesitations about the future of electric cars.

And why would you want to replace your perfectly good internal combustion fossil fuel-powered car all of a sudden? And if these cars are much more powerful and designed for the long haul, and fill up much faster than electric cars?

OK, when there are international rules and bans, there will be a compulsion to replace vehicles with electric cars with lower carbon emissions, but some things cannot be forced. At least at the state level, coercion doesn't do much, and if a state doesn't change its laws to ban fossil fuel cars, there may not be much that can be done. And every state prefers to make these changes in accordance with the wishes of its citizens.

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While adapting itself to the electric and hydrogen-fueled vehicles of the future, Toyota has focused more on hybrid models.

The models it has recently launched are mostly hybrids.

However, hybrid models will not be the solution in tomorrow's world if there is a large-scale ban on fossil fuels.

A global automobile manufacturer like Toyota, even though fossil fuel vehicles are still allowed in its own country, should already adjust itself to the countries where fossil fuels will be banned.

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So what does ammonia have to do with all this?

Because ammonia is also a fuel that can be used in today's fossil fuel cars!

By making a small adjustment to the engine of the vehicle, perhaps by changing a few parts, you can easily convert your gasoline or diesel vehicle into an ammonia-fueled vehicle. 

Toyota is currently focusing on the technology that will enable this transformation.

Moreover, it has conducted this project very secretly.

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Can ammonia really be used as a fuel?

Logically, if it could be used, the world of automobiles could continue with internal combustion engines, regardless of tomorrow's bans, as the vehicles would not emit carbon emissions.

Is ammonia difficult to produce?

I don't know that very well, I need to research it.

However, since there is ammonia in the water flowing from the fountains even in Herzegovina, it means that there are places in our country where we can obtain ammonia naturally.

Or was the water flowing from those fountains contaminated with ammonia from somewhere?

There were factories nearby, maybe we were washing our faces in the morning with water contaminated with factory waste?

Anyway, those years have passed, there was no environmental awareness in our country then like there is today. The Gulf of Izmit and the Golden Horn were stinking.

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I think ammonia is a fuel that really needs to be considered. If Toyota sees a future in this fuel, maybe it would be useful for us to work on it.

4(NH3) + 3(O2) => 2(N2) + 6(H2O)

The reaction formula is so simple that all that is released into the air from the vehicle exhaust is nitrogen gas and water vapor. 

An environmentally friendly solution! There is already a lot of nitrogen gas in the air.

But it's not that simple, when you try to burn ammonia directly with oxygen in its gaseous state, you end up with highly toxic nitrogen-oxygen compounds. To get pure nitrogen gas and water vapor from ammonia, you have to go through a series of processes and add a lot of catalysts to speed up the reactions.

This whole conversion would be a very expensive solution for a vehicle to run on ammonia.

Nevertheless, I think a cheap solution can be found if you try.

After all, since the raw material of ammonia is air, I guess there would be no raw material problem. Air is available in every country after all!

If you remember, I wrote before that fertilizer was made with nitrogen obtained from the air.

https://strasam.org/kultur-sanat/kultur/yasam-dongusu-denen-sey-nedir-2114

Ammonia production is just one of the steps in the production of fertilizer using nitrogen gas in the air.

Although the nitrogen in the formula is taken from the air, they have to use natural gas for now because it is cheaper for hydrogen, but as I have written before, hydrogen can also be obtained from water using green energy. 

Moreover, this method also leaves you with oxygen to use somewhere else.

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Could ammonia really be a fuel in the future?

And it stinks. If it does, there will be an unbearable smell of ammonia around and our noses will be broken. I don't think I need to explain what the smell of ammonia is, we all go to the toilet, so we're all familiar with it.

By the way, there may be an advantage to this, at least there is no risk of running out of fuel and being stranded on the road, you just open the tank cap, do your small ablutions and keep going!

Aside from the smell, I guess it's better than breathing carbon. 

At this rate, the world will be as hot as an oven, we need to find a solution to carbon emissions to prevent global warming.

Could ammonia be a cure for global warming?

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow.