MAROKO133 Breaking ai: 70% more efficient: Ammonia could power ships, heavy industries wit

📌 MAROKO133 Update ai: 70% more efficient: Ammonia could power ships, heavy indust

A new technology could help use ammonia as a fuel source for shipping, power generation, manufacturing, or other sectors.

Amogy has developed a catalyst it says can split — or “crack” — ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen up to 70 percent more efficiently than state-of-the-art systems today.

Founded by four MIT alumni, Amogy is planning to sell its catalysts as well as modular systems including fuel cells and engines to convert ammonia directly to power. Those systems don’t burn or combust ammonia, and thus bypass the health concerns related to nitrous oxides.

Ammonia can be used to power things at the scale of ships and trucks

“No one has showcased that ammonia can be used to power things at the scale of ships and trucks like us,” said CEO Seonghoon Woo, who founded the company with Hyunho Kim, Jongwon Choi, and Young Suk Jo. “We’ve demonstrated this approach works and is scalable.”

The company is targeting power-hungry industries like maritime shipping, power generation, construction, and mining for its early systems as the power density advantages of ammonia over renewables and batteries.

With a manufacturing contract secured with Samsung Heavy Industries, Amogy is set to start delivering more of its systems to customers next year. The company will deploy a 1-megawatt ammonia-to-power pilot project with the South Korean city of Pohang in 2026, with plans to scale up to 40 megawatts at that site by 2028 or 2029, according to a press release.

Amogy revealed that earlier this year, the company completed a research and manufacturing facility in Houston and announced a pilot deployment of its catalyst with the global engineering firm JGC Holdings Corporation.

Woo says dozens of other projects with multinational corporations are in the works.

Ammonia molecules split into their nitrogen and hydrogen

The company highlighted that in the early days, founders started experimenting with Jo’s technology for ammonia cracking, the process in which ammonia (NH3) molecules split into their nitrogen (N2) and hydrogen (H2) constituent parts.

Ammonia cracking to date has been done at huge plants in high-temperature reactors that require large amounts of energy. Those high temperatures limited the catalyst materials that could be used to drive the reaction, according to Amogy.

The founders were able to identify new material recipes that could be used to miniaturize the catalyst and work at lower temperatures. The proprietary catalyst materials allow the company to create a system that can be deployed in new places at lower costs.

“We really had to redevelop the whole technology, including the catalyst and reformer, and even the integration with the larger system,” said Woo. “One of the most important things is we don’t combust ammonia — we don’t need pilot fuel, and we don’t generate any nitrogen gas or CO2.”

Ammonia-powered drone

Amogy has proven the efficiency of its catalysts in demonstrations beginning with the first ammonia-powered drone in 2021. The catalyst can be used to produce hydrogen more efficiently, and by integrating the catalyst with hydrogen fuel cells or engines, Amogy also offers modular ammonia-to-power systems that can scale to meet customer energy demands, according to the company.

“We’re enabling the decarbonization of heavy industry,” Woo says.

“We are targeting transportation, chemical production, manufacturing, and industries that are carbon-heavy and need to decarbonize soon, for example, to achieve domestic goals. Our vision in the longer term is to enable ammonia as a fuel in a variety of applications, including power generation, first at microgrids and then eventually full grid-scale.”

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com

📌 MAROKO133 Hot ai: US Army uses wooden tanks in Hawaii exercises to cut costs and

The US Army confirmed it used plywood “wooden tanks” during a major training exercise in Hawaii earlier this month, describing the improvised decoys as a low-cost way to simulate armored threats during large-scale combat drills.

In a release posted this week, the Army said the replicas were deployed on November 6 during Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) Rotation 26-01 at Schofield Barracks. 

Officials referred to the systems as an “opposing force tank simulation set,” saying they help create a realistic battlefield environment without the cost and complexity of operating actual armored vehicles.

‘Wooden tanks’ 

The mock tanks are constructed from plywood and basic framing materials and are mounted on commercial pickup trucks. 

Although simple, they are built to mimic the silhouette and movement of armored vehicles, giving soldiers a visual cue similar to what they would encounter in mechanized warfare.

During JPMRC rotations, units face a dedicated opposing force that blends real vehicles, drones, sensors, and improvised platforms to replicate enemy capabilities. 

The plywood tanks were part of that mix, serving as simulated armored units during multiple engagements. 

Army officials said the decoys forced soldiers to adjust reconnaissance methods, revise tactics, and practice engagement procedures against what appears to be a mechanized threat.

The Army says using lightweight replicas helps reduce wear on operational vehicles, especially tanks and infantry fighting vehicles that require significant maintenance and heavy transport equipment. 

The low-cost mock-ups also allow training planners to field larger, more diverse opposing forces, thereby offering a more complex, unpredictable combat scenario.

Cut costs, sharpen training.

The concept is not new. Militaries in Europe and Asia widely use wooden, metal-frame, or inflatable decoy vehicles to simulate enemy armor, artillery, air defense systems, and command posts during exercises. 

The decoys allow commanders to train forces at scale without the expense of deploying active-duty armored fleets.

US troops in Europe have adopted similar practices. At the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany, American soldiers recently built a simple plywood tank for reconnaissance and targeting drills conducted with Ukrainian troops. 

The rough mock-up consists of a box-shaped hull made from construction lumber topped with a turret fashioned from plywood. A small pipe or broom handle stands in for the main gun.

Soldiers said the structure is intended as a full-scale target for drone operators and scout teams. Ukrainian troops have used the mock tank to practice spotting Russian armored vehicles through low-resolution first-person-view drone cameras, a critical skill in the ongoing war.

While the mock tank in Germany is designed for training, Ukrainian forces on the battlefield have used decoys as operational deception tools. 

Units have built wooden and inflatable replicas of tanks, howitzers, HIMARS launchers, and air-defense systems to mislead Russian surveillance drones and waste enemy ammunition. Some Russian drones have struck the decoys, Ukrainian officials said.

The Army notes that simple wooden targets have been used for more than a century to train armor and infantry units. While basic, they remain an effective and inexpensive method to prepare troops for the visual and tactical challenges of modern warfare.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com