Plasma‐assisted ammonia decomposition over Fe–Ni alloy catalysts for COx‐Free hydrogen

On‐site ammonia (NH 3 ) decomposition is considered as a potential path to supply CO x ‐free hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles. In this article, monometallic catalysts (Fe, Co, Ni, and Mo) and bimetallic catalysts (Fe–Co, Mo–Co, Fe–Ni, and Mo–Ni) were prepared and tested in plasma‐catalytic NH 3 decomposition, where 6Fe–4Ni catalyst exhibited the highest activity and synergistic capability with plasma. At 500°C, NH 3 were completely decomposed (>99.9% NH 3 conversion); the rate of H 2 production and the energy consumption of H 2 production reached 0.96 mol g −1 h −1 and 0.050 kW h (mol g −1 ) −1 , respectively. The 200 h continuous operation results indicate an excellent durability of 6Fe–4Ni catalyst. The catalysts characterization and plasma diagnosis results indicate that NH 3 was pre‐activated by plasma into excited‐state species (NH 3 , ˙NH 2 , and ˙NH), and the 6Fe–4Ni catalyst exhibited the highest capability to adsorb excited NH 3 , ˙NH 2 , and ˙NH species, which could be the main reason why 6Fe–4Ni catalyst exhibited the highest activity. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 65: 691–701, 2019