Hydrodynamics Simulation of Nanocataiyst Configuration for One-Step Urea Synthesis

Approximately 48% of global ammonia demand goes to urea production which is used as fertilizer. Currently the method used in urea production involves two steps. The first step is Haber-Bosch process to produce ammonia by reacting hydrogen (H2) and nitrogen (N2) at high temperature and pressure and the second step is to produce urea by reacting NH3 and carbon dioxide (CO2). The current method used in urea production consumes high cost and energy; hence one-step-urea synthesis method is introduced. The patent of one-step-urea synthesis is constructed based on the method's potential to
bypass ammonia step by reacting H2, N2 and C02 directly at ambient temperature and pressure. Presently, the design of microreactor used in one-step-urea synthesis is not available; hence this study will focus on investigating the optimum nanowire arrangement for the microreactor. In this paper, the fluid flow and the molecular motion in the mixing gases for urea synthesis is simulated by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach. In the microchannel where the scale is between micrometer to nanometer, the ability of mixing the gases can be achieved by varying the configuration of nanowire and flow rate of the fluid. The optimal nanowire orientation and flow rate of fluid will be based on degree ofmixing and pressure.