Mitsubishi Power Developing 100%
Ammonia-Capable Gas Turbine
Mitsubishi Power is developing a 40-MW class gas turbine that can
directly combust 100% ammonia under an initiative that responds to
heightened global decarbonization ambitions, as well as Japans recent
roadmap for ammonia fuel.
The Yokohamaheadquartered power equipment firm, a subsidiary of
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), on March 1 said it is targeting
commercialization of the novel ammonia-capable gas turbine, which will
be derived from its H-25 series, in or around 2025.
When achieved, it will mark the worlds first commercialized gas
turbine to make exclusive use of ammonia as fuel in a system of this
scale, the company said. The gas turbine will aid in the promotion
of decarbonization of small to medium-scale power stations for
industrial applications, [and] on remote islands, it said.
Direct Gas Turbine Combustion of Ammonia
The development is a notable new direction for Mitsubishi Power. Under
its Change
in Power campaign, the company is spearheading decarbonization
technology development specifically geared to its flagship line of
advanced gas turbines, and so far, it has made striking advances.
Responding to Japans Basic
Hydrogen Strategy, the company in 2018 set out to develop a large
gas turbine that can combust 100%
hydrogen. While Mitsubishi Power continues work on a pilot project
to convert
one of three unitsa 440-MW M701F gas turbineat Vattenfalls 1.3-GW
Magnum combined cycle plant in the Netherlands to renewable
hydrogen by 2023, its Lake Mary, Floridabased Mitsubishi Power
Americas arm in March 2020 secured
its first contract for two hydrogen-capable M501JAC power trains
to replace 1986-completed coal-fired units at the 1,800-MW
Intermountain Power Project (IPP) in Utah.
In September 2020, it launched two standard hydrogen
integration packages, Hydaptive, which is focused on power plant
site integration, spanning the electrolyzers to the gas turbines, and
Hystore, which develops hydrogens storage attributes. And that same
month, it secured more contracts stemming from its hydrogen capability
from developers for proposed gas power plants in Virginia,
Ohio, and New York, as well as a hydrogen integration contract with
Entergy Corp. In December, Canadian power producer Capital Power
also ordered two M501JAC turbines to repower its
Genesee Units 1 and 2 in Alberta from coal to natural gas.
Mitsubishi Power has said that because its M501JAC gas turbine model
integrates a combustor technology to address flashback (backfire),
combustion pressure fluctuation, and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions,
the J-series model is already capable of combusting a mix of natural
gas and up to 30% hydrogen. To get to a 100% hydrogen capability,
technology developers are now exploring combustor technology that
enables efficient mixing of hydrogen and air via an upgraded fuel
delivery nozzle design. Mitsubishi Power Americas CEO Paul Browning in
February told POWER the company is targeting development of 100%
hydrogen combustion technology by 2025.
However, in tandem, Mitsubishi Power (and MHI) have also been
studying gas turbine systems using ammonia as an energy carrier. Since
2017, as part of the Japanese Cabinets Strategic Innovative Promotion
Program, and Japans New Energy and Industrial Technology Development
Organization (NEDO), the company has focused efforts on developing a
system that thermally cracksusing waste heatammonia (NH3) into
hydrogen and nitrogen, and then combusts that hydrogen in a gas
turbine.
Company documents suggest the
approach may be better suited for smaller gas turbines, owing to
specific characteristics associated with ammonia combustion. For
example, because ammonia has a low combustion speed, it requires a
much larger combustor. And because ammonia contains nitrogen, any
system using it as a fuel will need to tackle the fuel NOx it
generates, it said. Mitsubishi Power has explored lowering the NOx via
two-stage combustion, but it said larger gas turbines posed many
technical problems, such as upsizing and complication of the
combustor.
Development of the 40-MW ammonia-capable gas turbine announced this
week, however, suggests Mitsubishi Power is rethinking the multistage
ammonia-cracking approach to explore a method for directly combusting
ammonia.
To address NOx production, which is prompted by oxidation of ammonias
nitrogen component through its combustion, the companys
commercialized gas turbine system will combine selective catalytic
reduction (SCR) with a newly developed combustor that reduces NOx
emissions, it said. That system will then be installed in the
companys H-25 series gas turbines (Figure 1), a model which
Mitsubishi Power has commercially sold to utilities and industrial
users since 1988.
![](images/images_10_07_2021/pic%201.jpg)
1. Mitsubishi Powers H-25 Series gas turbines are a heavy-duty type
that can achieve high efficiency with heat recovery steam generators,
as cogeneration systems or combined cycle power plants. The H-25
Series features a simple-cycle gas turbine output of 41 MW and a
combined cycle output of about 60 MW for a 11 configuration and about
120 MW for a 21 configuration. When applying cogeneration, they
supply a maximum of about 70 metric tons of steam per hour, Mitsubishi
Power says. Courtesy: Mitsubishi Power
Ammonia Garnering Interest as a Fuel
As Mitsubishi Power noted, commercialization of an ammonia-capable gas
turbine will expand its lineup of carbon-free power generation
systems. It suggests a market for the product is emerging:
Expectations are held that early introduction of ammonia-based power
generation equipment at power companies and independent power
providers (IPPs) will promote ammonias future use as a carbon-free
fuel, it said.
The effort rides a recent resurgence of interest in ammonias
suitability as a decarbonized fuel because its combustion produces no
carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, or soot. Interest in ammonia is also
heightened owing to its potential as an efficient energy carrier
because it has a high hydrogen density (17.8 weight %). As the second
most commonly produced chemical (after sulfuric acid) globally,
ammonia is today mainly utilized as an agricultural fertilizer, and in
food production, industrial materials, refrigerants, and
additiveswhich means it has a well-established global distribution
network. It is also generally considered stable for long-term storage
and transportation.
But while efforts to use ammonia in the energy sector have been
explored for several decades, energy harvesting from ammonia has been
limited by various challenges. One concern is that ammonia
is toxic and flammable, MHI noted. And while there are existing
standards and procedures, the required handling skills are not
commonly known outside of sectors that already use ammonia and its
derivatives.
Another significant challenge is that the production of green
hydrogen through electrolysis powered by renewable electricity is
not yet of a scale to be viable compared with conventional fossil
feedstock and therefore so is the production of green ammonia, the
company said. However, while most ammonia today is produced from
natural gas, several initiatives are underway to produce renewable
ammonia by converting green hydrogen to ammonia.
MHI has been notably active on this front. In November, the
company announced an investment in the Hydrogen Utility (H2U), an
Australian developer of green hydrogen and ammonia projects, saying it
will back a front-end engineering and design study for H2Us Eyre
Peninsula Gateway project in South Australia, which is slated to begin
commercial production of green hydrogen and ammonia in 2023.
In November, MHI also completed a capital investment in Monolith
Materials, a U.S. firm that could enable production of hydrogen and
carbon black from methane. Monolith Materials, which already operates
a commercial-scale carbon black production facility, Olive Creek 1, in
Nebraska, plans to begin operating a second facility to
produce turquoise hydrogen through its pyrolysis technology that
uses renewable energy as a heat source. Meanwhile, earlier this
February, MHI announced another methane pyrolysis investment in the
Series A financing round for the start-up C-Zero.
Japan Ramps up Ammonia Power Generation
How green ammonia will be used is also of growing interest. Several
countries have outlined ambitions to integrate ammonia in their future
energy system, including as a fuel for fuel cells and internal
combustion engines. Japan, which prominently leads these efforts,
envisions a substantial role for ammonia power generation. An updated overview
of its green growth strategy issued by Japans Ministry for
Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) this February, for example,
suggests full ammonia power generation could be demonstrated by
2045. An associated roadmap (Figure 2) also lays out a vast ammonia
supply chain expansion that will render the country into a regional
exporter of ammonia fuel.
![](images/images_10_07_2021/meti-road-map-february-2021.png)
2. Japans roadmap for fuel ammonia. Source: Japans Ministry for
Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI)
Ammonia-coal co-firing has so far
already been demonstrated in Japan, first by Chugoku Electric in July
2017 at its 156-MW Mizushima Thermal Power Station Unit 2 with a fuel
mix composed of 0.6% to 0.8% ammonia, and then by IHI Corp. in March
2018 at a large-capacity combustion facility in Aioi City, with a
fuel mix composed of 20% ammonia. Another Japanese firm, JERA, in
November announced it plans to shutter its entire 2.2 GW supercritical
coal power generation fleet in Japan by 2030, and then gradually
increase the ratio of mixed combustion of fossil fuels to ammonia and
hydrogen at ultrasupercritical plants.
But though turbine-based ammonia-fuel power generation was
introduced in the mid-1960sand it saw a relative resurgence in the
1990sit has not been practically adopted as a single fuel for
turbines. Japans breakthrough arrived in 2016, when a research team
led by Hideaki Kobayashi, professor at the Institute of Fluid Science
at Tohoku University in Sendai, demonstrated ammonia-air combustion
using a 50-kW micro-gas turbine system at the National Institute of
Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. The teams combustor
adopted gaseous NH3 fuel and diffusion combustion to enhance flame
stability.
Meanwhile, though Mitsubishi Powers efforts to commercialize a
100% ammonia-capable gas turbine is notable, the company already has
competition. IHI Corp. in October 2020 began co-firing tests on a 2-MW
class gas turbine at its Yokohama Works facility (Figure 3), utilizing
blue ammoniaammonia produced from natural gasas fuel.
![](images/images_10_07_2021/ihi_gasturbine_ammoniatest.jpg)
3. Ammonia co-firing gas turbine test facility at IHI Corp.s Yokohama
Works facility. Courtesy: IHI
The project aims to raise the ammonia co-firing ratio to more than 50%
on a calorific value basis. The process for producing ammonia from
natural gas entails capturing carbon dioxide emissions using them for
enhanced oil recovery and for carbon capture and utilization, IHI
said. The company noted it is conducting the gas turbine tests under a
program spearheaded by Japans Institute of Energy Economics and the
Saudi Aramco Oil Co. that aims to demonstrate the feasibility of the
blue ammonia supply chain.
Sonal
Patel is a POWER
senior associate editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
JERA Planning to Shift Coal
Power Fleet to 100% Ammonia
Japanese firm JERA, a joint venture between TEPCO and Chubu Electric,
on Oct. 13 issued a roadmap to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The move is notable for the company whose business includes a sizable
global liquefied natural gas (LNG) portfolio of five upstream
projects, 20 fleet carriers, an LNG tank capacity that is equivalent
to 30% of Japans tank capacity, and 11 LNG terminals in Japan. It
also owns 27 thermal power stations in Japan, which have a total
capacity of 70 GW, and another 30 power projects, including renewables,
in more than 10 countries, which amount to about 9 GW.
Under its roadmap, JERA plans to shutter its entire 2.2 GW
supercritical coal power generation fleet in Japan by 2030, and then
gradually increase the ratio of mixed combustion of fossil fuels to
ammonia and hydrogen at ultrasupercritical plants.
![](images/images_10_07_2021/pic3.jpg)
1. JERAs 4.1-GW Hekinan Thermal Power Station is one of the worlds
biggest coal plants. The plant houses five units. Units 1, 2, and 3
are 700-MW units that opened between 1991 and 1993, and Units 4 and 5,
1 GW each, opened in 2001 and 2002. Courtesy: JERA
Co-Firing Planned at a 4.1-GW Coal Plant
That effort will begin within the next decade with projects to
demonstrate ammonia co-firing at the 4.1-GW
Hekinan Thermal Power Station in Aichi Prefecture (Figure 1), and
a hydrogen co-firing demonstration at another power plant. Over the
next decade, JERA also plans to promote offshore wind power projects
and further improve the efficiency of LNG thermal power generation. In
the first half of the 2030s, the company wants to achieve a 20%
ammonia co-firing rate at all its coal plants, and it is seeking to
shift to 100% ammonia by the 2040s. It notes, however, that its
zero-carbon business strategy will depend heavily on advances in
decarbonization technology, economic rationality, and consistency with
government policy.
To that end, JERA is developing the decarbonization technologies it
plans to use. Its ammonia plans stem from a collaboration with
Japanese giants IHI Corp. and Marubeni Corp., along with Australian
natural gas and LNG producer Woodside Energy. The companies launched a
feasibility study with Japans New Energy and Industrial Technology
Development Organization (NEDO) this March. Slated to wrap up in
February 2021, the study will essentially involve a technical analysis
to inform JERAs demonstration for direct use of ammonia as a fuel
source in pulverized coal boilers, as well as evaluate the economics
of equipment costs, operational costs, and the costs of producing and
transporting ammonia.
Interest in Ammonia Is Growing
Ammoniaa compound of nitrogen and hydrogencan efficiently transport
and store hydrogen at low cost and in addition to its role as an
energy carrier, it can be directly used as fuel in thermal power
generation, the companies explained. According to the Ammonia
Energy Association (AEA), interest in exploring the gas as a
decarbonizing fuel has soared of late because it does not emit carbon
dioxide when it is burned. To date, the 2004-established industry
coalition has 76 members. Its power generating members include AES,
Arizona Public Service, ENGIE, ITM Power, Nebraska Public Power
District, Origin Energy, Shell, Total, and Tri-State Generation and
Transmission.
IHI, JERA, and Marubeni, notably, are board members on Japans Green
Ammonia Consortium, and their emphasis on ammonia is backed by
Japans International
Resource Strategy, which the Ministry of Economy Trade and
Industry (METI) issued in March. The strategy explicitly calls for
demonstration projects to promote ammonia as a fuel. Japan,
notably, also announced on Oct. 28 it will
seek to be carbon neutral by 2050, a shift that will require a fundamental
revision of its policy on coal plants.
But as the AEA noted, much progress has already been achieved in
Japan, led mainly by IHI, which is already developing a broad
portfolio of ammonia fuel technologies, including a solid oxide fuel
cell, gas turbine, industrial boilers, and co-fired thermal power
boilers. Ammonia-coal co-firing has also already been demonstrated,
first by Chugoku
Electric in July 2017 at its 156-MW Mizushima Thermal Power
Station Unit 2 with a fuel mix composed of 0.6% to 0.8% ammonia, and
then by IHI
in March 2018 at a large-capacity combustion facility in Aioi
City, with a fuel mix composed of 20% ammonia. As Bunro Shiozawa, a
senior associate at Sumitomo Chemical Co., wrote
in an AEA blog post this October, IHIs demonstration, which
involved a coal-ammonia burner that can be attached to an existing
coal plant, confirmed that at 20% ammonia co-firing carbon emissions
decreased 20%, and while nitrogen oxide could be largely reduced, the
boilers heat rate did not change significantly.
Under the study with NEDO, four companies plan to survey the full
ammonia-coal lifecycle from ammonia production to power generation
(Figure 3). IHI plans to evaluate the thermal efficiency of ammonia
co-firing using a numerical analysis, but the company will also study
ammonia storage and supply facilities, as well as ammonia co-firing
burners.
![](images/images_10_07_2021/pic%202.jpg)
3. A March 2020launched
feasibility study being conducted by three major Japanese coal
generators and an Australian gas producer, in collaboration with
Japans New Energy and Industrial Technology Development
Organization, will evaluate all aspects of ammonia-coal
co-firing from production to power generation. Courtesy: JERA |
JERAs role in
the feasibility study involves identifying and resolving
challenges related to the application of ammonia co-firing in
commercial coal plants. It will also study specifications on ammonia
storage, vaporizers, and evaluate necessary costs and capital
investments. Marubeni will look into methods to tamp down the carbon
footprint of ammonia, and to improve its transportation efficiency,
including by using larger-sized vessels to reduce costs. Finally,
Woodside will study challenges related to realizing large-scale
ammonia production plants and assess ways to reduce production costs.
Other notable industry initiatives to explore ammonia power associated
with the Green Ammonia Consortium include Mitsubishi Powers
agreements with Indonesias Bandung Institute of Technology in May to
probe new fuel technologies using ammonia and hydrogen to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, and to enhance technologies for diagnosing
the operation of Indonesias power plants through use of artificial
intelligence (AI) and big data analysis.
![](images/images_10_07_2021/pic4.jpg)
3. Japans Green Ammonia Consortium envisions a multi-pronged strategy
for the production and use of carbon-free ammonia fuel. As Shigeru
Muraki, representative director of the consortium, explained in March
2020, taking into account all cost components, transmission and
distribution of hydrogen as ammonia is likely the cheapest mechanism
for imports to Japan from Australia. Source:
The
Green Ammonia Consortium
Green Play Ammonia, Yielder NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
Nathan1@greenplayammonia.com
exactrix@exactrix.com
|