Conventional ammonia production uses natural gas, steam, and air to produce hydrogen and nitrogen using a two-step steam methane reforming process. The ammonia is synthesized using the Bosch process and by adding carbon dioxide from the reforming process to produce ammonia derivatives such as urea, nitric acid, and ammonium nitrate.

Three types of nuclear-integrated ammonia production are envisioned. The first case adds nuclear heat in the sulfur removal process and the primary reformer. The nuclear subsystem also provides power for compression, refrigeration, fans, and expansion. The second process bypasses the reformer and uses nuclear-generated hydrogen via HTSE. The hydrogen is used directly in the ammonia production process and is also combusted with air to produce the nitrogen needed for the process. Power is also applied to compression, fans, and expanders as in the previous case. The final case again uses HTSE to produce hydrogen, but the nitrogen is provided by an air separation unit, which requires power from the reactor. Ammonia production with nuclear integration would provide modest to large decreases in natural gas consumption (depending on the specific case) and very significant decreases in CO2 emissions (up to 99 percent reduction relative to traditional processes) [3, 23].