About this Research Topic

Background

Ammonia and hydrogen have great potential as carbon-free fuels with promising applications in future power generation, transportation, and heating systems. Hydrogen, in particular, raises great expectations as a pathfinder and enabler to a circular carbon economy; but issues related to storage, distribution, and infrastructure development are delaying its full implementation. Ammonia, on the other hand, is a highly efficient energy vector with higher volumetric energy density and an established and flexible infrastructure that can compensate for hydrogen's main drawbacks. This mature infrastructure, combined with the ability to generate ammonia from renewable energy sources, has paved the way for the transition to ammonia as the next sustainable fuel in the energy and transportation sectors. The current need to decarbonize the transportation sector in particular, as one of the main contributors to carbon emissions, can benefit from ammonia-fueled internal combustion engines (ICE).
However, compared to typical hydrocarbon fuels used in ICEs, the low reactivity properties of pure ammonia and higher NOx emissions limit its practical application. These limitations are prompting researchers to develop strategies such as dual-fuel concepts or novel combustion approaches to overcome the challenges of ammonia utilization. Recent studies and an exponential growth in the number of publications in this direction are bringing us closer to a viable solution for ammonia as an important transition to a cleaner energy future.

In this perspective, the papers in this collection will explore the use of ammonia as a fuel in combustion applications. The goal here is to highlight the prospects and challenges of ammonia as a fuel and to suggest important topics that could benefit from additional future studies. Submissions dealing with the basic mechanisms required for the development of the combustion of pure ammonia in internal combustion engines are welcome. Basic, technical, environmental, and economic aspects associated with the use of ammonia as a transportation fuel are of particular interest. Likewise, this Research Topic welcomes research on pure ammonia and ammonia fuel blends operation, NOx emission control, current challenges associated with detailed and accurate understanding of ammonia chemistry, and the lack of realistic numerical models, which will be discussed in depth to support the for the transition of ammonia into future practical applications and the commercial introduction of this technology.

The Research Topic accepts original research papers, reviews, letters, etc., which fall in the field of ammonia as energy vector in the energy and transportation sector.
Experimental and modeling activities are both welcomed, which can improve the scientific knowledge in this field. In particular, specific themes include but not limited to:
• Ammonia Combustion emissions risks;
• Emission management technologies;
• Engine Design and Optimization;
• Exhaust Gas Recirculation;
• Catalysts;
• Modeling and Control;
• System level models;
• Control oriented models;
• Chemical Kinetics;
• Combustion models (phenomenological, quasi-d, 3d-cfd).

Keywords: Ammonia, Combustion, Emissions, Chemical kinetics, NOx, N2O, decarbonization

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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