With installation and testing of ammonia fuel equipment now complete, a 20% ammonia co-firing demonstration will proceed from April to June this year at the Hekinan power plant. JERA and IHI aim for commercial operations to begin around March 2025. JERA is also exploring part ownership and offtake from Exxon Mobil’s CCS ammonia mega-project in Baytown, Texas.
The federal government of Canada has agreed to support Project Nujio’qonik via a US$95 million credit facility. The funding will help developers in the push towards long-term financing for the Newfoundland-based ammonia project.
Discussions will commence for the supply, purchase, and sale of ammonia from two of CIP’s ongoing mega-projects - St. Charles in Louisiana and Murchison in Western Australia - to Lotte in South Korea. Meanwhile, Lotte has selected KBR’s synthesis technology for its hydro-ammonia production project in Malaysia.
The Canadian and German governments have agreed to establish a bilateral funding window for hydrogen derivative exports between the two countries. H2Global will conduct “coordinated supply and demand side auctions”, with ammonia-producing projects on Canada’s Atlantic coast likely frontrunners for funding. In related news, Pattern Energy, lead developer of one of these export projects, will work with Mabanaft to explore a renewable ammonia supply chain between Newfoundland and Hamburg.
Meet 8 Rivers to learn about their proprietary 8RH2 technology, which allows for CO2 "capture" in excess of 99% from gas-based ammonia production, and their project based on 8RH2, Cormorant Clean Energy, which will produce 880,000 metric tons of “ultra low carbon” ammonia each year from 2027 in Port Arthur, Texas.
CCS-based ammonia produced in the USA by Idemitsu, Mitsubishi and Proman is expected to hit the Japanese market by 2030, targeting multiple end uses.
Last month, two Class VI permits were officially issued by the US EPA, allowing WVR to construct two wells for injection and storage of CO2 underground. CCS hydrogen will feed a 500,000 tons per year ammonia plant - a significant percentage of the fertiliser currently used within the USA’s Eastern Corn Belt.
US-based Syzygy Plasmonics announced successful final tests of its light-powered ammonia cracking technology. More than 1,500 hours of testing have validated the production of hydrogen from ammonia in the reactor cell, which is now available to order as a stacked, 5 tons per day capacity system.