Finalists revealed for ammonia bunkering, power generation pilot on Jurong Island
By on July 30, 2024
Keppel, Sembcorp
Click to learn more. EMA and MPA Singapore have announced two consortia as finalists to develop an ammonia power generation and bunkering pilot on Jurong Island.
From a shortlist of six, two potential consortia have been selected to develop and operate ammonia fuel trials on Jurong Island, Singapore. The Energy Market Authority (EMA) and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) assessed the technical, safety and commercial aspects of the shortlisted bids, before picking two led by Keppel Infrastructure and Sembcorp-SLNG respectively. The two leads will each focus on development of an ammonia-fired gas turbine pilot plant, while a trio of partner organisations will focus on the ammonia bunkering aspect of the pilot (Itochu, NYK Line and Sumitomo). The winning bid will be announced at the start of 2025.
Sembcorp and Keppel are engaged in their own, alternatively-fueled power generation projects on Jurong Island. Together with IHI, Sembcorp is exploring the retrofit of existing GE turbines at its Sakra power plant to run on 100% ammonia fuel. Keppel is currently developing the Keppel Sakra Cogen Plant, a 600 MW CCGT power plant which will operate with at least 30% hydrogen from 2026.
“End-to-end solution”
Launched in December 2022, the pilot itself will be an “end-to-end ammonia solution” on Jurong Island. It will combine a 55-65 MW, direct ammonia-fed combined cycle gas turbine, linked to a 100,000 ton ammonia bunkering facility (initially shore-to-ship, and then eventually ship-to-ship). This will enable fuel ammonia to be transported, transferred and stored safely near the power generation plant, which will provide electricity for nearby industrial customers. The pilot is part of Singapore’s National Hydrogen Strategy, which was launched in 2022 and prioritises experimentation with hydrogen technologies “on the cusp of commercial readiness”, including ammonia.
At Singapore Maritime Week this year, MPA took a further step to secure ammonia fuel for the Jurong Island pilot. It issued an RFI for “freight and insurance costs to transport ammonia into Singapore” from eight global locations. These include the Arabian Sea coastline of India, China’s Bohai Sea, northeast Newfoundland, Chile, the Gulf of Oman, Queensland, the Saudi Arabian Red Sea, and the US Gulf Coast. Starting with 100,000 tons per year in 2026, 300,000 tons per year will be shipped for five years from 2027, indicating that bunkering capacity will be increased shortly after the pilot begins operating.