Site items in: Power Generation

Development of a Highly Efficient COx-Free Ammonia Dehydrogenation System for Fuel Cell Applications
Presentation

The shortage of fossil fuels and emission of carbon dioxide to the environment have attracted an interest in discovering renewable energy as the next generation energy source. Owing to its intermittent and unpredictable nature, however, excess renewable energy needs to be stored and reused on demand. In the regard, hydrogen, which possesses a high gravimetric energy density and carbon free combustion process, has been extensively researched as a promising renewable energy carrier. However, the distribution and storage of hydrogen still raise important challenges due to the low volumetric energy density of hydrogen for its wide utilization. Currently, gaseous hydrogen transportation…

Ammonia-Hydrogen Power for Combustion Engines
Presentation

Ammonia blends can potentially become a breakthrough chemical for power generation, cooling storage and distribution of energy. Gas turbines and internal combustion engines are potential candidates for the use of the resource in an efficient way that will enable commissioning of combined cycles to power communities around Europe and around the world while serving as sources of heat and chemical storage. Therefore, development of these systems will bring to the market a safer, zero carbon fuel that can be used for multiple purposes, thus decentralizing power generation and increasing sustainability in the communities of the future whilst positioning the developing…

Cost Evaluation Study on CO2-Free Ammonia and Coal Co-Fired Power Generation Integrated with Cost of CCS
Presentation

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…

Ammonia-to-Hydrogen Seen for Electricity Generation
Article

Approximately 40% of the world’s energy budget is consumed in the generation of electricity.  This is by far the largest use of primary energy across major energy-consuming sectors (transportation, industry, etc.).  What role ammonia will play in the electricity sector is therefore a question of considerable importance for the sustainable energy system of the future.  One concept currently on the table is power-to-ammonia as a means of electricity storage, whereby electricity is used to produce hydrogen and the hydrogen is reacted with nitrogen to produce ammonia.  The other, mirror-image, concept is to use ammonia, or hydrogen derived from ammonia, as a fuel that can be turned into electricity. This “back-end” use case is the focus of recent announcements from Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS).  According to an April 5 story in the Nikkei Sangyo, MHPS plans to put a “hydrogen-dedicated gas turbine . . . into practical use by 2030.”  The company also stated that it has “started developing technology to extract hydrogen from ammonia,” citing ammonia’s ease “to store and transport.”

Green Ammonia Consortium Comes to the Fore in Japan
Article

On December 8, the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun ran a story about the future of coal-fired electricity generation in Japan.  The story touched on topics ranging from the plumbing in a Chugoku Electric generating station to the Trump administration’s idiosyncratic approach to environmental diplomacy.  And it contained this sentence: “Ammonia can become a ‘savior’ of coal-fired power.” Clearly an explanation is in order.

Presentation

Coal-fired power generation is supplying about 30% of the world’s primary energy. Almost all of coal-fired power plants in Japan employ the pulverized coal combustion method. In the pulverized coal combustion, coal is pulverized into a powder of several tens of microns. This method enables to burn coal effectively because of the large surface to volume ratio. Pulverized coal particles are supplied to the actual boilers with primary air whose Air/Coal ratio (mass flow rate of primary air/mass flow rate of pulverized coal) is set to 2.0. Co-combustion of coal with ammonia has been studied with the aim of reducing…

Combustion Emissions from NH3 Fuel Gas Turbine Power Generation Demonstrated
Presentation

To protect against global warming, a massive influx of renewable energy is expected. Although H2 is a renewable media, its storage and transportation in large quantity is difficult. NH3 fuel, however, is an H2 energy carrier and carbon-free fuel, and its storage and transportation technology is already established. Although NH3 fuel combustion was studied in the 1960s in the USA, the development of an NH3 fuel gas turbine had been abandoned because combustion efficiency was unacceptably low [1]. Recent demand for H2 energy carrier revives the usage of NH3 fuel, but no one has attempted an actual design setup for…

Power-to-Ammonia: the Economic Viability of Ammonia Energy
Article

In the last 12 months ... The extensive Power-to-Ammonia feasibility study demonstrated that ammonia energy could be economically viable in different business cases. The report was a collaborative effort by large European corporations - power companies, electricity distributors, chemical producers, engineering firms - and it has already resulted in plans for one 440 MW power plant to be converted to carbon-free fuel by 2023.

Ammonia for grid-scale power: Nuon, Gasunie, and Statoil
Article

A new collaboration was announced last week, between Dutch power company Nuon, European natural gas pipeline operator Gasunie, and Norwegian oil major Statoil. The joint venture will look at converting one of the Magnum power plant's three 440 MW gasifiers, with hopes to have it running on hydrogen fuel by 2023. This is the continuation of the Power to Ammonia project and, although ammonia is not expected to be used in this particular stage of the project, converting Magnum to hydrogen fuel represents the "intermediate step" to demonstrate that "where hydrogen could be produced using natural gas by 2023, from the year 2030 it could be possible to produce it with sustainably produced ammonia ... Ammonia then effectively serves as a storage medium for hydrogen, making Magnum a super battery."

On the Ground in Japan: Residential Fuel Cells
Article

Last week Kaden Watch, a Japanese Web site for appliance news, reported that Tokyo Gas had delivered its 80,000th Ene Farm residential fuel cell system. This small news item, delivered by a niche media outlet, lifts a critical corner of the decidedly “big-tent” story of Japan’s strategy to develop a hydrogen-based energy economy. How the Ene Farm topic develops is likely to be a major factor in Japan’s ability to sustain its hydrogen vision -- and possibly a determinant of the role ammonia could play within it.