How best to exploit natural gas abundance

Gas-to-liquids ( GTL)?  Perhaps not, methinks.  There may be better options.

Let me segue into some of the thinking I've been doing on the subject of ammonia.  Firstly, let's observe that ammonia is already being made, but only for growing seasons.  Also, ammonia is made from fossil fuels, like natural gas.  Thus, the infrastructure and methodology already exists, but is underutilized, it appears.  That is an opportunity that can be exploited.

So, what's the hang-up?  The big problem to solve is the inherent dangerousness of ammonia.  If it leaks, it can kill you.  So that behooves you to be very, very careful with it.  Keep in mind that ammonia is already being transported and used extensively in agriculture.  Transporting the stuff in cars isn't that much different than what is already being done.   Nevertheless, ways to improve safety of the hazardous substance must be found in order to quell any fears about using it extensively in transportation.

One idea is to replace the tank completely at each fill up.  That's the way it is done on forklifts that use natural gas.  A refueled tank is swapped out with the empty one on the vehicle.  This method could be employed on cars as well as I don't think it would be wise to have self-service filling stations that dispense anhydrous ammonia.  The swap out could be easily and could be done as quickly as a fill up now.  It may add to the costs to do it this way, but it would increase safety.

What about wrecks and such that could puncture or damage a tank?  That may be a risk that will have to be accepted.  Keep in mind that gasoline and diesel can explode and catch fire.  Those risks are accepted, why not accept ammonia?  Another idea:  today's cars sport an airbag which deploys when a collision is sufficiently violent.  In a similar manner, a neutralizer could be injected into the tank if its integrity is compromised in an accident.  This could render the gas harmless.

The tanks could be made double-walled like tankers on the high seas.  If the outside wall is punctured, the inside part is neutralized in a split second before much, if any could leak out.

Finally, cars can be made safer and fewer accidents means fewer potential ammonia spills.  One possibility is to make cars smarter by having them talk to each other.  For example, a collision warning system could be installed on new vehicles.

These precautions add to costs which kind of defeats the whole purpose.  But the spread in prices for natural gas and gasoline is so high that a lot of margin for safety is possible.  For example, the price of natural gas is close to half the price of gasoline.  If the ammonia was to be used in a fuel cell, fuel efficiency doubles again.  A lot of margin for safety.

Once the safety issue is adequately addressed, the logic of using ammonia as fuel becomes compelling.