Japanese firms step up ammonia power development

Japanese thermal power firm Jera is bolstering the development of ammonia co-firing power generation technology with the country's engineering firms, as demand increases for cleaner feedstocks for electricity output to achieve Japan's 2050 carbon neutral goal.

Jera has partnered with IHI and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to separately develop and demonstrate a new burner capable of co-firing rate of at least 50pc ammonia at a coal-fired power plant until March 2029. The projects are estimated to cost around ¥45.2bn ($390mn) in total, of which the companies have secured about ¥27.9bn of subsidies from the Green Innovation Fund managed by state-controlled research and development institute Nedo. The funding for each pilot project is unclear.

Jera and IHI plan to develop the new co-firing burner and to install it at the No.4 or No.5 unit at Jera's Hekinan coal-fired power plant in central Japan's Aichi prefecture. The firms target to develop the advanced burner and consider specification for boilers and other equipment by the April 2024-March 2025 fiscal year, then start testing co-firing with more than 50pc ammonia at the existing coal-fired unit by 2028-29.

Jera and IHI have already worked together on demonstrating co-burning of ammonia and coal at Hekinan to ensure a 20pc co-firing ratio at the No.4 unit during 2024-25. The project is also backed by Nedo.

Jera also has a project with MHI to develop an ammonia-dedicated burner suitable for coal-fired boilers and demonstrate operations of the burner at actual boilers. The companies will develop the new burner and draw up a master plan for equipment by 2024-25 and verify co-firing with at least 50pc ammonia at two units with different boiler types by 2028-29. It is still unclear which power plant will be candidate for the pilot project.

The 50pc ammonia co-firing target is beyond Tokyo's current goal to achieve a 20pc ratio by 2030. If the companies advance the development of a new burner technology as planned by 2028-29, demand for ammonia may increase faster than the original schedule. Japan's trade and industry ministry under the current roadmap is expecting ammonia fuel demand to reach 3mn t/yr by 2030 and 30mn t/yr by 2050.

By Motoko Hasegawa