The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has published a regional strategy to decarbonise the power generation ecosystem in the Chugoku region, Japan. The strategy predicts the region will require more than 3 million tons of fuel ammonia by 2030, and highlights several ongoing industrial initiatives to demonstrate the use of ammonia fuel & establish local import infrastructure.
Miura Industries and Chubu Electric Power will jointly work together to develop an ammonia co-fired boiler. The boiler will run on a mixture of ammonia and coal-derived gas, with potential industrial applications in Japan.
Approved by the national cabinet, the draft law aims to create a legal framework for rapid development and expansion of hydrogen infrastructure, including ammonia import and cracking facilities. Relevant planning, approval and procurement procedures will be simplified and digitalized where possible, and projects covered by the Act will also be considered in the “overriding public interest”, with some important caveats. Germany’s national cabinet also approved a CCS Act this month, aimed at decarbonising hard-to-abate industrial processes.
thyssenkrupp Uhde will lead concept development of a 50 MW electrolysis facility adjacent to Fertiberia’s Puertollano plant. Together with Nel and Iberdrola’s existing 20 MW electrolysis facility operating nearby, enough electrolytic hydrogen feedstock will be produced to decarbonise 40% of Puertollano’s site emissions.
Nel will license its alkaline electrolyser technology to India-based Reliance Industries which will manufacture them for the Indian market.
The Korea Institute of Energy Research has successfully demonstrated an upgraded version of its ammonia cracking system. The new system eliminates the use of LNG or LPG as reaction heat source and introduces a single-step process for hydrogen separation from the tail gas.
Two big players, Johnson Matthey and thyssenkrupp Uhde, will combine their CCS-based hydrogen and ammonia synthesis technologies to offer a new “blue” ammonia solution, enabling production with up to 99% CO2 capture.
From near-zero volumes today, JERA has set its sights on being a “pioneer player” in the emerging global value chain for ammonia, handling 7 million tons every year by 2035. JERA is also aiming for 100% substitution of ammonia fuel in ultra-supercritical power stations in the 2040s, and to maintain currently low levels of NOX and SOX emissions from its power generating fleet.
The Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2) and Trovio have announced a strategic partnership to develop a digital global registry for certification of hydrogen and its derivatives. The partnership will leverage CorTenX, Trovio’s blockchain-powered environmental asset registry. Trovio and GH2 believe this technology will promote transparency, traceability, and compliance in the certification space.
LSB will supply up to 150,000 tons per year of low-carbon ammonium nitrate solution (ANS) to Freeport Minerals Corporation from 2025, for use in Freeport’s USA copper mining operations. The ANS will be manufactured from low-carbon ammonia produced at LSB’s El Dorado plant.