The Korean Green Ammonia Alliance

By Julian Atchison on July 20, 2021

Whole life cycle assessment of various green ammonia technologies, from MOTIE's press release.
Click to enlarge. Whole life cycle assessment of various green ammonia technologies, from MOTIE’s press release.

Thirteen private organisations and five public institutions joined together this week to form the South Korean Green Ammonia Alliance (public details in the Korean language press release).

The Alliance’s key aim is to work towards carbon neutrality for Korea by 2050. How will they will achieve this? Through cooperation, information exchange, development of technical & safety standards, and advocacy.

The members include:

  • Public institutions: Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) and H2KOREA.
  • Private companies: Doosan Heavy Industries, Doosan Fuel Cell, Lotte Chemical (who themselves announced a $3.8 billion hydrogen growth roadmap this week), Lotte Fine Chemical, Samsung Engineering, POSCO, Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, Hanwha Solutions, Hyundai Oilbank, Hyundai Motor, Hyundai Steel, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Glovis.

Areas for cooperation

The participating members represent all parts of the ammonia value chain: production, transportation, cracking and utilisation. At present there are no confirmed details for the roles and responsibilities of individual member organisations. However, confirmed areas for cooperative technology R&D include:

…cost-effective green ammonia synthesis, transportation & fuel utilization of marine ship, green hydrogen supply via green ammonia extraction(cracking) as well as some direct ammonia utilizations such as gas turbine, boiler, steel industry, ammonia-coal co-fired power plant, and carbon free direct ammonia fuel cell. 

Green Ammonia Alliance MoU press release from MOTIE, 15 July 2021
Click to learn more. MoU signing ceremony of Green Ammonia Alliance. Source: KIER.

Two Korean ammonia consortia

This latest news comes two months after the announcement of another Korean consortium, the Green Ammonia Bunkering & Transportation Consortium, with many of the same members. But, while the Alliance will focus on R&D and value chain development for power generation applications, the Bunkering & Transportation Consortium will focus on the maritime fuels market. In April 2021, we wrote here in detail about local ammonia energy activities and the role for ammonia in the Korean New Deal.