Beyond fossil fuel-driven nitrogen transformations

BACKGROUND The invention of the Haber-Bosch (H-B) process in the early 1900s to produce ammonia industrially from nitrogen and hydrogen revolutionized the manufacture of fertilizer and led to fundamental changes in the way food is produced. Its impact is underscored by the fact that about 50% of the nitrogen atoms in humans today originate from this single industrial process. In the century after the H-B process was invented, the chemistry of carbon moved to center stage, resulting in remarkable discoveries and a vast array of products including plastics and pharmaceuticals. In contrast, little has changed in industrial nitrogen chemistry. This scenario reflects both the inherent efficiency of the H-B process and the particular challenge of breaking the strong dinitrogen bond. Nonetheless, the reliance of the H-B process on fossil fuels and its associated high CO 2 emissions have spurred recent interest in finding more sustainable and environmentally benign alternatives. Nitrogen in its more oxidized forms is also industrially, biologically, and environmentally important, and synergies in new combinations of oxidative and reductive transformations across the nitrogen cycle could lead to improved efficiencies. ADVANCES Major effort has been devoted to developing alternative and environmentally friendly processes that would allow NH 3 production at distributed sources under more benign conditions, rather than through the large-scale centralized H-B process. Hydrocarbons (particularly methane) and water are the only two sources of hydrogen atoms that can sustain long-term, large-scale NH 3 production. The use of water as the hydrogen source for NH 3 production requires substantially more energy than using methane, but it is also more environmentally benign, does not contribute to the accumulation of greenhouse gases, and does not compete for valuable and limited hydrocarbon resources. Microbes living in all major ecosystems are able to reduce N 2 to NH 3 by using the enzyme nitrogenase. A deeper understanding of this enzyme could lead to more efficient catalysts for nitrogen reduction under ambient conditions. Model molecular catalysts have been designed that mimic some of the functions of the active site of nitrogenase. Some modest success has also been achieved in designing electrocatalysts for dinitrogen reduction. Electrochemistry avoids the expense and environmental damage of steam reforming of methane (which accounts for most of the cost of the H-B process), and it may provide a means for distributed production of ammonia. On the oxidative side, nitric acid is the principal commodity chemical containing oxidized nitrogen. Nearly all nitric acid is manufactured by oxidation of NH 3 through the Ostwald process, but a more direct reaction of N 2 with O 2 might be practically feasible through further development of nonthermal plasma technology. Heterogeneous NH 3 oxidation with O 2 is at the heart of the Ostwald process and is practiced in a variety of environmental protection applications as well. Precious metals remain the workhorse catalysts, and opportunities therefore exist to develop lower-cost materials with equivalent or better activity and selectivity. Nitrogen oxides are also environmentally hazardous pollutants generated by industrial and transportation activities, and extensive research has gone into developing and applying reduction catalysts. Three-way catalytic converters are operating on hundreds of millions of vehicles worldwide. However, increasingly stringent emissions regulations, coupled with the low exhaust temperatures of high-efficiency engines, present challenges for future combustion emissions control. Bacterial denitrification is the natural analog of this chemistry and another source of study and inspiration for catalyst design. OUTLOOK Demands for greater energy efficiency, smaller-scale and more flexible processes, and environmental protection provide growing impetus for expanding the scope of nitrogen chemistry. Nitrogenase, as well as nitrifying and denitrifying enzymes, will eventually be understood in sufficient detail that robust molecular catalytic mimics will emerge. Electrochemical and photochemical methods also demand more study. Other intriguing areas of research that have provided tantalizing results include chemical looping and plasma-driven processes. The grand challenge in the field of nitrogen chemistry is the development of catalysts and processes that provide simple, low-energy routes to the manipulation of the redox states of nitrogen.