Japan to advance ammonia co-firing technology

Japan is targeting to bring forward a plan to develop technology that can increase the use of ammonia in power generation, as part of efforts to assist domestic and other Asian utilities to accelerate their transition to carbon neutrality.

The trade and industry ministry (Meti) has proposed a new target to finalise development of a coal burner that can co-fire ammonia at an above-50pc rate and of a fully ammonia-fired gas turbine by 2030. Meti wants to complete a demonstration project for the ammonia co-fired burner and ammonia-fired gas turbine at operating power units by the April 2029-March 2030 fiscal year before starting commercial installation from 2030.

Meti currently targets completion during the 2030s under the country's green growth strategy .

The new agenda was included in research and development (R&amp;D) projects proposed to be subsidised by a ¥2 trillion ($18bn) government fund created to back green innovation projects for the next 10 years in efforts to decarbonise Japan by 2050. The government has been discussing use of the fund managed by state-controlled R&amp;D institute Nedo and has so far proposed to allocate ¥370bn for development of a large-scale hydrogen supply chain and an electrolyser .

Meti expects development of such advanced coal-ammonia burners and ammonia-fuelled gas turbines on a commercial scale will help Japanese firms tap the potential demand for ammonia as a co-firing fuel in Asia, where the EIA forecast coal-fired power capacity would account for 40pc of total capacity in 2040.

Co-firing acceleration Japan is accelerating finalising technology development for co-firing ammonia at a 20pc rate. Domestic power joint venture Jera and engineering firm IHI have been assigned to carry out a four-year study by Nedo, targeting to compete a demonstration project to co-fire 20pc ammonia at Jera's 1,000MW No.4 coal-fired power unit at Hekinan during 2024-25.

Jera is planning to consume 30,000-40,000t of ammonia at the No.4 coal-fired unit during the study, while another 200t of ammonia is expected to be used in August-December this year at the 1,000MW No.5 coal-fired unit for testing of burners. The company said it plans to move to commercial operations at the No.4 unit if the Nedo study proves successful.

Japan is targeting to begin commercial use of ammonia as a co-firing fuel sometime before 2030, possibly as early as in 2025. The country's ammonia demand is expected to hit 3mn t in 2030 before rising to 20mn t in 2050. Co-firing at a 20pc rate is expected to use 500,000 t/yr of ammonia at a 1,000MW coal-fired power unit.

IHI is working to commercialise ammonia-fired gas turbine technology by 2025. The company in March this year achieved 70pc co-firing of ammonia at a 2MW gas turbine as part of Nedo's study, which used blue ammonia produced and supplied by state-controlled Saudi Aramco. It also achieved 100pc ammonia-fuelled firing on a limited basis.

Fellow Japanese engineering firm Mitsubishi Power is also developing a 40MW gas turbine fuelled by ammonia for power generation, targeting commercial use after 2025.

Japan's domestic ammonia demand, primarily for industrial and fertiliser use, was 1mn t in 2020-21, down by 7pc from a year earlier, according to industry group the Japan Fertiliser and Ammonia Producers Association. Domestic production fell by 12pc to 743,231t in 2020-21, while imports also dropped by 17pc to 203,299t.

By Rieko Suda

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