In Japan, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment will invest $212 million in the domestic manufacture of ammonia engines, fuel tanks and components. In Korea, the national Export-Import Bank has committed to supporting ammonia-fueled newbuilds.
Australia-based Pilot Energy has been approved as a potential low-emission ammonia fuel supplier under the newly-implemented Clean Hydrogen Production Standard (CHPS) scheme in Korea. In Alberta, Korea Southern Power will work with Hydrogen Canada Corporation to jointly develop a 1 million tons per year ammonia production facility.
KEPCO, Samsung C&T, and Korea Western Power will join forces with UAE-based developer Petrolyn Chemie to construct a 200,000 tonne per year renewable ammonia production plant in the KIZAD Industrial Area near Abu Dhabi. The announcement marks the second overseas ammonia project launched by a Korean consortium this year, the first being an export project in Malaysia announced in January.
On the home front for South Korea, a new amendment to the national hydrogen law will see certification of clean hydrogen based entirely on carbon emissions during production, and not technology pathways.
South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced ammonia coal co-combustion will be operational in over half the country's coal-fired power generating units by 2030. The government has already set a target of 13.8 - 21.5% of national power generation coming from hydrogen & ammonia-fed gas turbines by 2050 (the 2050 Carbon Neutrality Roadmap was approved in October). To help drive the required commercialisation & technology deployment, MOTIE, KEPCO and other Korean power utilities will collaborate in a ‘Hydrogen and Ammonia Power Generation Demonstration Promotion Group’. In supply news, South Korean oil & gas major GS Energy announced this week is will join ADNOC and Japan-based Mitsui & Co. to develop the million tonne per year blue ammonia project in Al Ruwais, UAE.
Thirteen private organisations and five public institutions joined together this week to form South Korea's Green Ammonia Alliance. The Alliance's key aim is to work towards carbon neutrality for Korea by 2050.