Japanese government funding via NEDO will support four critical ammonia energy projects, including JERA's new plan to demonstrate 50% ammonia-coal co-firing by 2030. Other projects include improved catalysts for ammonia production, low-temperature and low-pressure synthesis pathways, and developing 100% ammonia-fed boilers and gas turbines. In addition, a new cooperation agreement between ASEAN countries will see Japan support other members to adopt their ammonia energy solutions, particularly coal co-firing.

The diesel engine, also known as the compression ignition (CI) engine, has been a workhorse of the modern energy economy for more than a hundred years. Its role in the coming sustainable energy economy will be determined by its ability to co-evolve with climate-friendly fuels. Two researchers from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan have now examined the fit between ammonia and the CI engine. Pavlos Dimitriou and Rahat Javaid arrive at a two-part conclusion in their paper, “A review of ammonia as a compression ignition engine fuel,” published in January in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Part one is good news: “Ammonia as a compression ignition fuel can be currently seen as a feasible solution.” Part two is a dose of qualifying reality: to manage emissions of N2O, NOx, and unburnt NH3, “aftertreatment systems are mandatory for the adaptation of this technology,” which means that ammonia-fueled CI engines are likely to be feasible “only for marine, power generation and possibly heavy-duty applications where no significant space constraints exist.”

Recently, ammonia is regarded as an alternative fuel without carbon dioxide (CO2). Numerous studies have been performed using ammonia as a fuel. Iki and Kurata confirmed the working of a prototype for the ammonia gas turbine, where ammonia burned in an environmentally benign way to generate electricity, exhausting only water and nitrogen [1]. From the view of cycle of ammonia for the development of a society with low carbon, it is required to synthesize carbon-free ammonia (green ammonia) in small plants. This green ammonia can be synthesized using renewable energy, with hydrogen from electrolysis of water and nitrogen from pressure…

Development of the hydrogen carrier system is of great interest to utilization of renewable energy. To store renewable energy, especially for the electricity from photovoltaic and wind turbine, fluctuation of the generated electricity is not appropriate for the stable supply of the electric power. Also, the hydrogen production by the water electrolysis with the fluctuating electricity results in the fluctuation of hydrogen production. When we store the hydrogen derived from renewable energy in the carrier compounds, it is necessary to consider the reduction or smoothing of fluctuation in the hydrogen flow rate as a feed of chemical process. Although the…

To protect against global warming, a massive influx of renewable energy is expected. Although hydrogen is a renewable media, its storage and transportation in large quantity has some problems. Ammonia fuel, however, is a hydrogen energy carrier and carbon-free fuel, and its storage and transportation technology is already established. In the 1960s, development of ammonia combustion gas turbines was abandoned because combustion efficiency was unacceptably low [1]. Recent demand for hydrogen energy carriers has revived the interest in ammonia as fuel [2, 3]. In 2015, ammonia-combustion gas turbine power generation was reported in Japan using a 50-kW class micro gas…

Ammonia is a promising hydrogen carrier to transport green hydrogen from overseas to Japan at lower cost and resulting in lower lifecycle CO2 emission. Low carbon ammonia will be produced by fossil fuel reforming with CCS or EOR at the early stage of the introduction of ammonia fuel to the market. Green ammonia production from renewable sources is the ultimate goal, but there are some issues to commercialize. The low capacity factor, which is caused by the fluctuation of solar irradiation or wind speed, is a big issue which leads to ammonia production costs. In this presentation, we would like…

Japanese capital goods manufacturer IHI Corporation announced last month that it has started construction of a 1,000 square-meter hydrogen research facility in Fukushima Prefecture.  The facility will be an addition to IHI’s Green Energy Center in Soma City which was launched in 2018.  One of the Center’s original focuses is the production steps of the green hydrogen supply chain using solar electricity to power developmental electrolyzers.  The new facility will focus on hydrogen carriers, including ammonia and methane (via “methanation” of carbon dioxide), that can be used in the logistics steps of the supply chain.

In late 2018, JGC Corporation issued a press release to celebrate a "world's first" in ammonia energy, demonstrating at its pilot plant in Koriyama both "synthesis of ammonia with hydrogen produced through the electrolysis of water by renewable energy, and generation of electricity through gas turbines fueled by synthesized ammonia." By demonstrating the feasibility of using ammonia on both sides of the renewable energy equation -- first, producing green ammonia from intermittent renewable electricity and, second, combusting this carbon-free fuel for power generation -- the project demonstrates the role of ammonia in the "establishment of an energy chain ... that does not emit CO2 (CO2-free) from production to power generation."

In Japan, the government funding project SIP, Strategic Innovation Promotion Program, supports the research, development and demonstration of “Energy Carriers”. The concept of the “Energy Carriers” value chain is to produce hydrogen energy carriers overseas from fossil resources using CCS or renewable energy, and transport it to Japan for utilization as clean energy. The purpose of the program is to help realize a low-carbon society in Japan by using hydrogen. Among energy carriers, ammonia is the one of the most promising carriers, because of the ease of transportation as a liquid, higher hydrogen density, and proven technologies for commercial and…

Process technologies on energy conversion of renewable electricity into hydrogen energy carrier are significant to deploy long-term storage and long-distance transport of much more renewable inside and outside Japan. Ammonia is a potential hydrogen carrier that contains 17.6 wt% of hydrogen. Moreover, as an energy carrier, ammonia is thought to be a clean fuel as only water and nitrogen are produced on direct combustion. Many researchers and engineers consider that ammonia plants using hydrogen produced by solar electricity or wind electricity will be much smaller than those currently used [1]. There is an issue of low pressure condition for feed…

A massive influx of renewable energy is required in order to mitigate global warming. Although hydrogen is a renewable media, its storage and transportation in large quantity is difficult. Ammonia, however, is a hydrogen energy carrier, and its storage and transportation technology is already established. Although ammonia fuel combustion was studied in the 1960s in the USA, the development of an ammonia fuel gas turbine had been abandoned because combustion efficiency was unacceptably low [1]. Recent demand for hydrogen energy carrier revives the usage of ammonia fuel. The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan, in…

Two new pilot projects for producing "green ammonia" from renewable electricity are now up and running and successfully producing ammonia. In April 2018, the Ammonia Manufacturing Pilot Plant for Renewable Energy started up at the Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute - AIST (FREA) in Japan. Earlier this week, Siemens launched operations at its Green Ammonia Demonstrator, at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory outside Oxford in the UK. The commercial product coming out of these plants is not ammonia, however, it is knowledge. While both the FREA and Siemens plants are of similar scale, with respective ammonia capacities of 20 and 30 kg per day, they have very different objectives. At FREA, the pilot project supports catalyst development with the goal of enabling efficient low-pressure, low-temperature ammonia synthesis. At Siemens, the pilot will provide insights into the business case for ammonia as a market-flexible energy storage vector.

The second annual European Conference on Sustainable Ammonia Solutions has announced its full program, spread over two days, May 17 and 18, 2018, at Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands. The international cadre of speakers, representing a dozen countries from across Europe as well as the US, Canada, Israel, and Japan, will describe global developments in ammonia energy from the perspectives of industry, academia, and government agencies.

Recently deployment of renewable energy such as sunlight and wind power or deployment of process technologies for carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is indispensable to reduce the CO2-emission. However, there are some issues to be solved in order to accelerate the mass deployment of renewable energy. Since amount of renewable energy quite changes unstably with time, which depends on weather and place, development of process systems technology is an issue for stable and effective utilization of electric power that is generated by fluctuating renewable energy. Those in national institute of National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)…

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…

To demonstrate the progress of the SIP "Energy Carriers" program, the Japan Science and Technology Agency last week released a video, embedded below, that shows three of its ammonia fuel research and development projects in operation. R&D is often an abstract idea: this video shows what it looks like to generate power from ammonia. As it turns out, fuel cells aren't hugely photogenic. Nonetheless, if a picture is worth a thousand words, this will be a long article.

In the last 12 months ... Groups in Australia, Japan, Denmark, the U.K., and the U.S. all made progress with technologies that can be used to convert ammonia to hydrogen at fueling stations. This means that hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles can be handled as ammonia from the point of production to the point of dispensing.

In the last 12 months ... In July 2017, 19 companies and three research institutions came together to form the Green Ammonia Consortium. Before this development, it was unclear whether ammonia would find a significant role in Japan’s hydrogen economy. In the wake of this announcement, however, ammonia seems to have claimed the leading position in the race among potential energy carriers.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KWI) is moving ahead with plans for a “liquefied hydrogen carrier ship,” as reported by at least two Japanese news outlets since July.  This means that the groups backing each of the energy carriers included within Japan’s Cross-Ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) have all made significant moves ahead of the program’s termination at the end of 2018.  On July 25, 2017 the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) announced that a collection of companies and research institutions had come together to form the Green Ammonia Consortium.  On July 27, 2017, Chiyoda Corporation announced that work was starting on a demonstration project that will transport hydrogen from Brunei to Japan using liquid organic hydride carrier technology. 

On July 25, the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) announced that a collection of companies and research institutions had come together to form a Green Ammonia Consortium.  The 22-member group will take over responsibility for the ammonia aspect of the Cross-Ministerial Strategic Innovation Program (SIP) Energy Carriers agenda when the SIP is discontinued at the end of fiscal 2018.  A JST press release states that the Consortium intends to develop a strategy for “forming [an] ammonia value chain,” promote demonstration projects that can further commercialization, and enable “Japanese industry to lead the world market.”

The American Chemical Society (ACS) has published the program for its 2017 National Meeting, which takes place next month in Washington DC and includes a session dedicated to the "Ammonia Economy." The first day of the week-long meeting, Sunday August 20th, will feature a full morning of technical papers from the US, UK, and Japan, covering ammonia energy topics across three general areas: producing hydrogen from ammonia, developing new catalysts for ammonia synthesis and oxidation, and storing ammonia in solid chemical form.

Hideaki Kobayashi, professor at the Institute of Fluid Science at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, has developed the world’s first technology for direct combustion of ammonia in a gas turbine. The advance was made in cooperation with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) under a program led by Norihiko Iki.

Two talks delivered in December show the tiny steps that allow a country to transition to a sustainable energy economy. The country is Japan. The events hosting the talks were short-format symposia whose evident objective was to draw in business and technical people who might become practically involved in the new energy economy. Both talks highlighted the role to be played by ammonia while also describing competing and complementary technologies.

A common concern with ammonia fuel is that NOx emissions will be too high to control. However, in new research from Turkey, USA, and Japan, presented at this year's NH3 Fuel Conference in September 2016, two things became clear. First, NOx emissions can be reduced to less than 10ppm by employing good engineering design and exploiting the chemical properties of ammonia, which plays a dual role as both the fuel and the emissions-cleanup agent. Second, the deployment of ammonia-fueled turbines for power generation is not only feasible, but actively being developed, with demonstration units running today and improved demonstration projects currently in development.

Ammonia is expected not only as hydrogen energy carrier but also as carbon free fuel. For an industrial use of ammonia combustor, ammonia flame stabilized on a swirl combustor should be clarified. However, in order to realize an ammonia-fueled combustor, there are some issues to be solved, such as a difficulty of flame stabilization and reductions of NOx and ammonia emission. In this study, stabilization and emission characteristics of ammonia / air flames stabilized by a model swirl burner are investigated. The outer and inner diameters of the swirler are 24 mm and 14 mm, respectively, and the swirl number…

The Cabinet of the Government of Japan adopted the country’s Fourth Strategic Energy Plan in April 2014. The Plan includes a Strategy for Hydrogen & Fuel Cells which is being executed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The accompanying H2/FC Road Map includes an investigation of three materials that can carry the energy embodied in molecular hydrogen: liquid hydrogen, organic hydrides such as methylcyclohexane, and ammonia.