Kepco and the Hydrogen Utility have signed an offtake agreement for renewable ammonia produced at the under-development H2-Hub in Gladstone, Queensland. The pair will develop supply chains for the ammonia product to be exported to Korea, where it will be used to decarbonise power stations. In Western Australia, two new renewable energy-powered, million-tonne-per-year projects have been launched, with Korean-based KOMIPO and Australia-based Progressive Green Solutions agreeing to develop the new export plants.

Saudi-based ACWA Power has signed agreements to explore the overseas production of hydrogen & ammonia with two organisations: South Korean power utility KEPCO, and government-owned finance body the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa.

Doosan, KEPCO and Samsung will join forces to jointly develop a “dual-fuel green ammonia” power generation model that can be rolled out to 1 GW power plants in South Korea. In the trio, Doosan is charged with the development of ammonia dual-fuel boilers, indicating that coal co-firing is the target of the model rollout. As part of a different agreement, Doosan is also involved in ammonia-hydrogen gas turbine development with POSCO and KEPCO.

KEPCO, Samsung C&T, and Korea Western Power will join forces with UAE-based developer Petrolyn Chemie to construct a 200,000 tonne per year renewable ammonia production plant in the KIZAD Industrial Area near Abu Dhabi. The announcement marks the second overseas ammonia project launched by a Korean consortium this year, the first being an export project in Malaysia announced in January.

On the home front for South Korea, a new amendment to the national hydrogen law will see certification of clean hydrogen based entirely on carbon emissions during production, and not technology pathways.

South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced ammonia coal co-combustion will be operational in over half the country's coal-fired power generating units by 2030. The government has already set a target of 13.8 - 21.5% of national power generation coming from hydrogen & ammonia-fed gas turbines by 2050 (the 2050 Carbon Neutrality Roadmap was approved in October). To help drive the required commercialisation & technology deployment, MOTIE, KEPCO and other Korean power utilities will collaborate in a ‘Hydrogen and Ammonia Power Generation Demonstration Promotion Group’. In supply news, South Korean oil & gas major GS Energy announced this week is will join ADNOC and Japan-based Mitsui & Co. to develop the million tonne per year blue ammonia project in Al Ruwais, UAE.

South Korea has featured in many Ammonia Energy news updates, but often in a scatter gun fashion that lacked the momentum of ammonia energy announcements coming from the other side of the Korea Strait. Now, South Korea is ready to step out from Japan’s shadow as a clean energy innovator and deployer in its own right. We’re seeing the beginnings of a well-articulated strategy to achieve society-wide decarbonisation in South Korea, with a starring role for clean hydrogen and clean ammonia.