IHI, Babcock Power Services collaborate to retrofit existing power plants
By on April 27, 2026
Enabling low-carbon fuels to be fed into retrofitted power plant boilers
Click to learn more about IHI’s ammonia fueled co-firing boiler technology. From Nobuhiko Kubota, Partnering for Technology Deployment across Asia (Oct, 2025).
US-based Babcock Power Services (BPS) and Japan-based IHI Corporation have signed a new partnership that targets retrofits of existing power generation assets to enable the use of ammonia and other low carbon fuel alternatives. The agreement targets commercial acceleration of technological retrofits and co-firing of fuels in existing power plant boilers worldwide.
Globally, BPS has successfully converted the fuel source of 17 GW worth of power plant boilers, manufactured by a variety of companies.
IHI has been involved in a series of ammonia fuel retrofit projects, including:
- the successful replacement of 20% of the energy content of coal with 30,000 tons of ammonia in the feedstock of Unit 4 of the Hekinan Thermal Power Plant, in Japan 2024. This was in collaboration with JERA.
- a project successfully completed in April 2025, where 50 tons of renewable ammonia was produced and co-fired in an 8-hour trial at PLN’s Banten Labuan power plant on Java’s west coast, Indonesia. This is in collaboration with Pupuk Kujang Fertilizers and PLN Indonesia Power.
- development of a 100% ammonia-fueled gas turbine (the 2 MW, IM270 model) based on an existing unit. One of these 100% ammonia fueled gas turbines will be demonstrated in Malaysia in collaboration with PETRONAS in 2027.