Air Liquide will invest up to $850 million to build, own and operate four large air separation units as part of ExxonMobil’s low-carbon hydrogen project in Baytown, Texas. The units will provide nitrogen and oxygen feedstocks to ExxonMobil, which will be used to produce low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia.
JERA and IHI have successfully concluded a large-scale ammonia co-firing trial at the Hekinan power station. For two months, 20% fuel substitution in the 1 GW-sized Unit 4 was achieved, with stable operations throughout. JERA aims to have commercial ammonia co-firing operations up and running by March 2025.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has published a regional strategy to decarbonise the power generation ecosystem in the Chugoku region, Japan. The strategy predicts the region will require more than 3 million tons of fuel ammonia by 2030, and highlights several ongoing industrial initiatives to demonstrate the use of ammonia fuel & establish local import infrastructure.
From near-zero volumes today, JERA has set its sights on being a “pioneer player” in the emerging global value chain for ammonia, handling 7 million tons every year by 2035. JERA is also aiming for 100% substitution of ammonia fuel in ultra-supercritical power stations in the 2040s, and to maintain currently low levels of NOX and SOX emissions from its power generating fleet.
In our April episode of Project Features, 8 Rivers joined us to discuss its 8RH2 technology for gas-based hydrogen production with carbon capture rates beyond 99%. As well as the technology itself, we explore the Allam-Fetvedt cycle, the deployment of 8RH2 to produce ammonia in Texas, and 8 Rivers’ future plans.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and NGK Insulators will jointly develop a membrane-based purification system to produce high-purity hydrogen from ammonia cracking. Also in Japan, Toyo Engineering and Nippon Seisen will lead development of a small-scale ammonia cracking unit, producing on-demand hydrogen for vehicle fuel and power generation.
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.
Based on Topsoe’s H2RETAKE™ technology, an ammonia cracking facility owned and run by Approtium will be built in Ulsan, South Korea. Approtium has already secured a supply of ammonia via an offtake agreement signed with Hyphen Hydrogen.
GE Vernova and IHI Corporation will proceed to the engineering and testing phase for their ammonia gas turbine roadmap for Asia. Based on their efforts in 2022 to demonstrate a low-N2O combustor for a 2 MW, 100% ammonia-fired turbine, IHI will lead development of a two-stage combustor for larger-scale gas turbine models.
In a 4-year partnership, PTT Global Chemical will collaborate with MHI to explore the feasibility of a large scale carbon neutral petrochemical complex in Thailand, powered by low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia-fueled gas turbines.