Safety Concerns for Ammonia as a Green Energy Vector and the Role of Spray Curtains for Its Accidental Release Mitigation

The mitigation and reduction of carbon footprint is nowadays one of the most pressing challenges covering the most diverse fields of civil activity and industrial production, to meet the climate neutrality targets of the Paris protocol by 2050. However, the intermittency of renewable sources necessitates diverse technical solutions for energy storage. An attractive peculiarity of NH3 as an energy vector stems in its double possibility of being used both as a source of H2 and directly as a green fuel. Intriguingly, an aspect common to most scientific publications on the subject is the limited attention to safety and risk problems connected with the use of NH3. This paper intended to fill a gap pertaining to the emerging risks associated with the use of ammonia as an energy vector and to provide experimental and theoretical investigations on liquid spray curtains as an effective mitigation technique for accidental releases of ammonia in air.