Dr. Un-ho Jung's research team of the Hydrogen Research Department at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) succeeded in developing ‘the core technology of a pressurized ammonia decomposition reactor for hydrogen production’ using ammonia as a raw material for the first time in Korea.

The research team used its own designed ammonia distributor for ammonia to be uniformly supplied to each reactor, and derived the optimal conditions for ammonia to be decomposed through experiments on many variables such as the interval and location of the burner and the reactor.

The catalytic reactor for ammonia decomposition, which was developed through three years of research from 2018, achieved more than 90% ammonia decomposition efficiency through optimization of catalysts, reactors, heat exchangers, and operating conditions, and the stability verification of each component was also completed through 100 hours of operation. Hydrogen produced from ammonia is expected to be supplied to hydrogen electric vehicles at hydrogen charging stations in the future.