Recent advances in metal-mediated electrochemical ammonia synthesis towards commercialization

Current commercial ammonia production occurs in large, centralized facilities via the Haber–Bosch process, emitting a significant portion of our global CO2 emissions. In a world of increasing decentralized renewable energy production, there is therefore an urgent need to develop sustainable and decentralized technologies for ammonia synthesis, which can abate these emissions and take advantage of the decentralized nature of renewables: the electrochemical N2 reduction field offers a promising alternative. Herein, only electrochemical metal-mediated ammonia synthesis processes have been proven across several laboratories and research groups to work at near-ambient pressure and temperature. This review will provide an overview of recent advances in the last two years laying a foundation for future industrial applications of the metal-mediated ammonia synthesis process.