IHI and JERA Co-hosts Ceremony Celebrating Fuel Ammonia Substitution Demonstration Testing Milestone
On June 1, IHI and JERA Co., Inc., cohosted a ceremony to celebrate a milestone in fuel ammonia substitution demonstration testing at the latter’s Hekinan Thermal Power Station in Aichi Prefecture.
On 1 April 2024, IHI and JERA started the world’s first large-scale ammonia substitution demonstration testing at the power station, which is a large commercial coal-fired facility. The ceremony commemorated the two companies achieving 20% substitution on April 10 this year at a one-gigawatt unit. The 85 attendees included Taku Ishii, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Tamotsu Saito, Chairman of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization; and Hiroshi Ide, President and Chief Executive Officer of IHI, who delivered the welcoming speech.
The two companies are collaborating on a project that NEDO has subsidized. The name of that initiative is the Development of Technologies for Carbon Recycling and Next-Generation Thermal Power Generation / R&D and Demonstration Project for Ammonia Co-Firing Thermal Power Generation Technology.
Ammonia can be a very economical and efficient carrier for transporting and storing hydrogen energy. It can also be used directly as a thermal power generation fuel that does not emit carbon dioxide during combustion. The NEDO-subsidized project represents an important initial low-cost approach to accelerating decarbonization in Japan and other countries that need thermal energy to regulate and stabilize electricity supplies.
The project started in June 2021 and should end in March 2025. It aims to establish technologies to substitute coal with ammonia at the Hekinan facility to lower its environmental impact. Demonstration testing ended on June 26, 2024.
IHI embarked on IHI Carbon-Neutral 2050 in 2021 to lower greenhouse gases from its activities and from upstream and downstream processes in its value chain. It will employ findings from this project to create a combustion technology that increases the ammonia mixture to 50% at thermal power plants and develop burners for 100% ammonia combustion. By harnessing technology to transition to clean fuels, the company will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and provide solutions that meet regional and customer needs in driving toward carbon neutrality by 2050.
Related information
Press release on April 1, 2024 – Start of Demonstration Testing of Fuel Ammonia Substitution at JERA’s Hekinan Thermal Power Station: The World’s First Demonstration Testing of 20% Ammonia Substitution at a Large-Scale Commercial Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plant
https://www.ihi.co.jp/en/all_news/2024/resources_energy_environment/1200737_13691.html
Press release on May 16, 2024 – IHI Updates Progress on Ammonia Substitution Demonstration Testing at JERA’s Hekinan Thermal Power Station
https://www.ihi.co.jp/en/all_news/2024/resources_energy_environment/1200850_13691.html
Fuel Ammonia Demonstration Project in Hekinan Thermal Power Station Event Movie "Energy for a New Era"
https://www.jera.co.jp/en/corporate/about/zeroemission#tab2