Ammonia co-firing trials will shortly commence in the Philippines, Thailand and Chile, with an initial focus on co-firing rates of 20-30% ammonia. Japanese energy giants JERA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries continue to be significant players in the co-firing space.
JERA has signed MoUs this week with two significant ammonia producers, potentially securing the supply of one million tonnes of clean ammonia fuel to Japan each year from 2027. JERA has signed exploratory agreements for 500,000 tonnes of clean ammonia fuel each with CF Industries and Yara Clean Ammonia, and will also explore investment options in greenfield mega-projects on the US Gulf Coast.
Joint venture SK Plug Hyverse has agreed to deploy its Korean-manufactured PEM electrolysers overseas, and then supply Korea South-East Power (KOEN) with renewable hydrogen & ammonia imports for co-firing at natural gas and coal power plants. In Malaysia, power utility Tenaga Nasional Bhd, IHI Power Systems and Petronas announced they have successfully conducted 60% ammonia co-combustion trials. And in Singapore, Jurong Port, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and JERA will conduct a joint study on Jurong Island, where a 60MW, combined-cycle gas turbine will be fueled by 100% ammonia to produce zero-carbon electricity.
Doosan, KEPCO and Samsung will join forces to jointly develop a “dual-fuel green ammonia” power generation model that can be rolled out to 1 GW power plants in South Korea. In the trio, Doosan is charged with the development of ammonia dual-fuel boilers, indicating that coal co-firing is the target of the model rollout. As part of a different agreement, Doosan is also involved in ammonia-hydrogen gas turbine development with POSCO and KEPCO.
Adani Power and two Japanese organisations - IHI Corporation and Kowa - have signed a new MoU to conduct a feasibility study into 20% ammonia-coal co-firing at the Mundra power plant in Gujarat, India. The trio will also investigate increasing this co-firing percentage all the way up to 100% ammonia fuel (“mono-firing”). The new MoU contributes to a national-level partnership announced last week - the "India-Japan Clean Energy Partnership (CEP)".
Indonesia’s state-owned fertiliser manufacturer will join forces with Mitsubishi Corporation to explore the feasibility of hydrogen & ammonia supply chains in the country: both renewable and CCUS-based. The new partnership aims to reduce coal utilisation at existing thermal power plants via co-firing with ammonia, helping Indonesia to meet its emissions reduction targets.
Japanese power utility JERA has launched an international bidding process to procure 500,000 tonnes per year of fuel ammonia, starting in 2027 and running into the 2040s.
The South China Morning Post reports that China Energy Investment Corporation has successfully demonstrated co-firing 35% ammonia with coal at a power generation unit in Shandong Province. Further technical details emerged from additional Chinese media outlets, including that the pilot test occurred in a 40 MW coal boiler at the Huaneng Yantai coal power plant, and that NOx emissions were reportedly lower than burning pure coal fuel.