Amogy, GS Engineering & Construction, HD Hyundai Infracore, and the city of Pohang will collaborate to deploy a 1 MW ammonia-powered distributed power generation system in 2026, scaling up to a commercial, 40 MW system by 2028-29.
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Demonstration project for a green chemical plant using large-scale alkaline water electrolysis
To achieve the carbon neutrality target set to be accomplished by 2050, hydrogen will play an important role in many sectors such as power, transportation, and industrial applications. Especially in the chemicals and fertilizers sectors, green ammonia, made by utilizing renewable energy as a feed stock, is expected to be materialized, and is also being considered as a hydrogen carrier with the advantage of easier transportation and handling than the hydrogen itself. Hence, in the near future, green chemical production facilities which are fed with hydrogen produced through the use of renewable energy will be installed instead of the conventional…
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Demonstration Project for a Green Chemical Plant using Large-scale Alkaline Water Electrolysis
To achieve the carbon neutrality target set to be accomplished by 2050, hydrogen will play an important role in many sectors such as power, transportation, and industrial applications. Especially in the chemicals and fertilizers sectors, green ammonia, made by utilizing renewable energy as a feed stock, is expected to be materialized, and is also being considered as a hydrogen carrier with the advantage of easier transportation and handling than the hydrogen itself. Hence, in the near future, green chemical production facilities which are fed with hydrogen produced through the use of renewable energy will be installed instead of the conventional…
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New ammonia partnerships in Japan, Indonesia
JGC Corporation has entered into a series of new ammonia partnerships. As part of a wider agreement to license KBR’s patented ammonia production technology, a new renewable ammonia pilot plant will be developed near Fukushima. JGC will team up in an “alliance agreement” with TOYO Corporation to develop fuel ammonia production projects and import terminals in Japan. And in Indonesia - where TOYO is currently assessing the feasibility of retrofitting an existing ammonia plant to run entirely on renewable energy - JGC and Indonesia’s national energy organisation Pertamina will collaborate on key decarbonisation projects.
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The Ammonia Wrap: new funding and investment for ammonia energy rolls in, next steps for Uruguay, and Sumitomo to develop a hydrogen "ecosystem" in regional Australia
Welcome to the Ammonia Wrap: a summary of all the latest announcements, news items and publications about ammonia energy. This week: new funding and investment for ammonia energy (Starfire Energy, GenCell, Syzygy Plasmonics and Hazer Group), marine engines from the "Ammoniamot" consortium, Uruguay's national hydrogen strategy takes another step, Onahama Port to investigate hydrogen & ammonia imports and Sumitomo to develop Gladstone's hydrogen "ecosystem".
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Japan's Road Map for Fuel Ammonia
This month, the Japanese Ministry for Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) began promoting an updated Road Map for Fuel Ammonia, focused on the use of ammonia in thermal power plants and as a shipping fuel. By 2030, Japan expects to import 3 million tons of clean ammonia, with demand rising to 30 million tons by 2050. To secure these volumes, Japanese companies are now making investments up and down the supply chain. These are ambitious numbers, matching Japan’s recent commitment to reach net-zero emissions, but still they miss the big picture. The broader economic opportunity arrives when Japanese companies export their fuel ammonia technologies, decarbonizing coal-fired power plants across Asia, and then supply the fuel to these newly sustainable shipping and electricity sectors. By 2050, the METI Road Map expects Japanese trading companies to supply the wider region with 100 million tons per year of clean ammonia.
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METI Forms Ammonia Energy Council
Last week, Japan’s Ministry of Energy, Trade, and Industry (METI) announced the formation of a council to work on the implementation of ammonia as an energy commodity. The announcement came on the same day as a speech by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in which he established 2050 as the date certain for Japan to achieve carbon-neutrality. That was Monday October 26, 2020. The council held its first meeting on Tuesday October 27. The Council consists of four entities from the public sector and ten from the private sector. Members include companies that have previously been identified with the development of ammonia energy systems, including EPC firm JGC, capital goods manufacturer IHI, electric utility JERA, and shipping company NYK Line. The membership also reflects what appears to be the group’s central mission: positioning Japan as ammonia energy’s global leader via the dissemination of technology and the development of supply chains.
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Saudi Arabia ships low-carbon ammonia to Japan
Last week, Saudi Aramco and the IEEJ attracted significant media attention when they announced that the first “blue” ammonia has been shipped to Japan. Aramco’s celebration of this shipment of 40 tons of ammonia (not 40 thousand or 40 million, just 40 tons) raises many questions, but makes three things clear. First, projects to demonstrate the carbon footprint of specific batches of low-carbon ammonia are now underway, and these case studies will inform the design of an international low-carbon ammonia certification scheme. Second, there is an urgent need to establish definitions across the industry, or risk losing credibility. Third, Aramco (absolutely the most profitable company in the world, with over a hundred oil and gas fields and almost 300 trillion scf of natural gas reserves) has sent a clear signal that it intends to make and sell ammonia as a decarbonized energy commodity.
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Demonstration and Optimization of Green Ammonia Production Operation Responding to Fluctuating Hydrogen Production from Renewable Energy
Ammonia is a promising hydrogen carrier to transport green hydrogen from overseas to Japan at lower cost and resulting in lower lifecycle CO2 emission. Low carbon ammonia will be produced by fossil fuel reforming with CCS or EOR at the early stage of the introduction of ammonia fuel to the market. Green ammonia production from renewable sources is the ultimate goal, but there are some issues to commercialize. The low capacity factor, which is caused by the fluctuation of solar irradiation or wind speed, is a big issue which leads to ammonia production costs. In this presentation, we would like…
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The Evolving Context of Ammonia-Coal Co-Firing
Co-firing ammonia in a coal-fueled boiler, a concept under active development in Japan, received positive notice in the International Energy Agency’s recently published report, The Future of Hydrogen. So far serious scrutiny of the co-firing concept is limited to Japan. In the fullness of time, the demand side of the concept may take root in other countries. The supply side, however, could have near-term global relevance.
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The global quest to decarbonize ammonia production
NEWS BRIEF: The industrial process for ammonia production is increasingly being recognized as a target for decarbonization - by researchers, investors, regulators, and the producers themselves. Demonstrating this shift in awareness, Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN), one of the flagship publications of the American Chemical Society (ACS), this week published an in-depth review of global research and development efforts and demonstration plants for sustainable ammonia synthesis. Its review is all-encompassing, from near-term feasible renewable Haber-Bosch plants, to long-term research areas of electrochemistry, photocatalysis, and bioengineering.
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New Video Summarizes SIP Energy Carriers Accomplishments
ANNOUNCEMENT: The Japanese Government’s Cabinet Office and the Japan Science and Technology Agency have released an English-language video that summarizes the accomplishments of the Cross-Ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program’s Energy Carriers initiative. The release coincides with the end-of-March conclusion of Energy Carriers’ work, and anticipates this month’s formal activation of the Green Ammonia Consortium.
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JGC Corporation demonstrates "world's first" carbon-free ammonia energy cycle
In late 2018, JGC Corporation issued a press release to celebrate a "world's first" in ammonia energy, demonstrating at its pilot plant in Koriyama both "synthesis of ammonia with hydrogen produced through the electrolysis of water by renewable energy, and generation of electricity through gas turbines fueled by synthesized ammonia." By demonstrating the feasibility of using ammonia on both sides of the renewable energy equation -- first, producing green ammonia from intermittent renewable electricity and, second, combusting this carbon-free fuel for power generation -- the project demonstrates the role of ammonia in the "establishment of an energy chain ... that does not emit CO2 (CO2-free) from production to power generation."
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International Cooperation for Implementation of Green Ammonia
International Cooperation for Implementation of Green Ammonia Yasushi Fujimura, JGC Corporation
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Demonstration of CO2-Free Ammonia Synthesis Using Renewable Energy-Generated Hydrogen
In Japan, the government funding project SIP, Strategic Innovation Promotion Program, supports the research, development and demonstration of “Energy Carriers”. The concept of the “Energy Carriers” value chain is to produce hydrogen energy carriers overseas from fossil resources using CCS or renewable energy, and transport it to Japan for utilization as clean energy. The purpose of the program is to help realize a low-carbon society in Japan by using hydrogen. Among energy carriers, ammonia is the one of the most promising carriers, because of the ease of transportation as a liquid, higher hydrogen density, and proven technologies for commercial and…
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Cost Evaluation Study on CO2-Free Ammonia and Coal Co-Fired Power Generation Integrated with Cost of CCS
This study presents a cost estimation for electricity generated by CO2-free ammonia and coal co-firing. Regulation of CO2 emissions seems to be gaining pace due to the global warming issue so the introduction of CO2-free energy in power generation has become desirable. Ammonia is one of the potential energy carriers for power generation and development of ammonia combustion technology with low NOx emissions has been conducted in Japan. In order to investigate the feasibility of the introduction of CO2-free ammonia in Japan from both the technical and economic viewpoints, we estimated the ammonia supply chain cost from ammonia production integrated…
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Green ammonia demonstration plants now operational, in Oxford and Fukushima
Two new pilot projects for producing "green ammonia" from renewable electricity are now up and running and successfully producing ammonia. In April 2018, the Ammonia Manufacturing Pilot Plant for Renewable Energy started up at the Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute - AIST (FREA) in Japan. Earlier this week, Siemens launched operations at its Green Ammonia Demonstrator, at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory outside Oxford in the UK. The commercial product coming out of these plants is not ammonia, however, it is knowledge. While both the FREA and Siemens plants are of similar scale, with respective ammonia capacities of 20 and 30 kg per day, they have very different objectives. At FREA, the pilot project supports catalyst development with the goal of enabling efficient low-pressure, low-temperature ammonia synthesis. At Siemens, the pilot will provide insights into the business case for ammonia as a market-flexible energy storage vector.
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Green Ammonia Consortium: Bright Prospects in Japan for Ammonia as an Energy Carrier
In the last 12 months ... In July 2017, 19 companies and three research institutions came together to form the Green Ammonia Consortium. Before this development, it was unclear whether ammonia would find a significant role in Japan’s hydrogen economy. In the wake of this announcement, however, ammonia seems to have claimed the leading position in the race among potential energy carriers.
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Low-carbon ammonia synthesis: Japan's 'Energy Carriers'
In 2018, a pilot plant in Japan will demonstrate a new way to produce ammonia at industrial-scale, with a low carbon footprint. This is part of Japan's 'Energy Carriers' R&D initiative, which aims to develop technologies to enable the nation's transition to a carbon-free hydrogen economy. The scope of the program covers ten subjects that encompass the full "CO2-free hydrogen value chain." Three of these ten programs describe a technology pathway for making low-carbon ammonia.