Doosan Heavy Industries, POSCO and RIST to develop ammonia gas turbines

Doosan Heavy Industries and POSCO – two members of the newly launched Korean Green Ammonia Alliance – signed an MoU this week with the Pohang-based Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST) to develop “Clean Ammonia-Fueled Gas Turbines”.

For Doosan, this is the latest in a series of hydrogen-related announcements (including nuclear-powered hydrogen production in Idaho), but it’s the first one linking them specifically with ammonia energy.

As with other ammonia gas turbine projects, some amount of ammonia cracking will be required to produce an ammonia-hydrogen blend, rather than the turbines being fueled by pure ammonia or pure hydrogen:

POSCO will be handling the production and supply of ammonia…POSCO and RIST will be jointly pursuing development of the ammonia cracker, and Doosan Heavy will be developing the hydrogen gas turbine and combustor to be used for combustion of the gas generated from ammonia cracking.

Doosan Heavy Industries press release, 19 July 2021

The combustion of ammonia-hydrogen fuel blends in gas turbines is already under investigation by multiple organisations, including Starfire Energy and EPRI and GTI. In terms of turbine size, Doosan is already participating in the government-led “Development of Eco-Friendly Hydrogen Dual-Fuel Combustor for 300MW High-Efficiency Hydrogen Gas Turbine” project. This scale could represent a significant step up from previous announcements, such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ under-development 40 MW ammonia gas turbine that we reported on in March.