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ERA, IHI START AMMONIA CO-FIRING AT COAL POWER PLANT

Japanese utility Jera along with engineering firm IHI Corp has begun small-scale use of ammonia at Hekinan coal-fired power station unit 5, it said on October 6. The plant, located in central Japan, is operated by Jera.

The project will run for approximately four years from June 2021 to March 2025 and aims to achieve an ammonia co-firing rate of 20% at Hekinan unit 4 in fiscal 2024. The use of ammonia at unit 5 is for the purpose of developing a co-firing burner to be used for large-volume utilisation of ammonia at unit 4.

Replacing two of the 48 burners at unit 5 with test burners, during the roughly six months from now to March 2022, Jera and IHI will examine the effects of different burner materials and combustion times to identify the required conditions for co-firing burners.

The approximately 200 metric tons of ammonia to be used will be supplied to the test burners at unit 5 from denitration tanks on the premises of the power station, Jera said.