DoE funding for ammonia energy

GTI Energy: building a prototype ammonia gas turbine

GTI Energy (a recent rebrand of the Gas Technology Institute based in Illinois) has been awarded $4.2 million from the US Department of Energy to design, construct and validate a prototype ammonia-powered gas turbine. The use of pure ammonia and ammonia-hydrogen fuel blends will be investigated, with comprehensive modeling to inform manufacture of the prototype. The DoE indicates the results could assist commercialisation by allowing existing turbine manufacturers to develop their own ammonia-fed combustor components and integrate them with current models.

Raytheon: low NOx combustors

In the same funding round, Raytheon was awarded two grants. $3.8 million will go towards development and demonstration of an ultra-low NOx emitting ammonia combustor module for gas turbines. The combustor will need to operate at high temperatures using “high-purity” ammonia fuel, with a combustion efficiency of 99.99%. A second grant is ammonia-adjacent, with $5.6 million to develop a retrofit combustor module for the existing FT4000 gas turbine. Starting with a hydrogen-gas fuel blend, the R&D program targets combustion of 100% hydrogen fuel.

8 Rivers: CCS hydrogen for ammonia production

And 8 Rivers was awarded $1.8 million to complete a pre-FEED study for a new CCS hydrogen production plant in Evanston, Wyoming. 8 Rivers indicates that the hydrogen produced will then be converted into ammonia for rail transport to California. Evanston is the home of three potential, large-scale CCS projects, with two of them to produce ammonia. In January this year we reported on state government funding awarded to Project Phoenix: a CCS ammonia project led by North Shore Energy and Starwood Energy Group that will repurpose existing gas infrastructure.