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Hooked on coal for power, Japan aims for ammonia fix

Japan is stepping up efforts to extend the lifespan of its coal-fired power plants in an ambitious project to add low-carbon ammonia to its fuel mix, targeting both stable energy supply and lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in one stroke.

The world's fifth-biggest CO2 emitter's push to use ammonia as a fuel reflects its 2050 goal to become carbon neutral and comes to alleviate pressure from Britain and other countries to phase out dirty coal at the COP26 global climate conference, starting in Glasgow on Sunday.

Tokyo has pledged to achieve net zero emissions status by 2050, but reliance on coal and gas as fuels for power has grown since Japan suffered the 2011 Fukushima disaster, which effectively left its nuclear power industry in crisis.

Use of ammonia - principally used as a raw material for fertiliser and chemicals - faces significant technical and costs challenges, and likely won't placate campaigners calling for a COP26 commitment to consign use of coal to history.

But Japan has high hopes that it can pioneer a new way of reducing CO2 emissions at coal-fired power plants that could be adopted in other countries.

Earlier in October, the country's biggest power generator, JERA, began using a small amount of ammonia in a demonstration at its 4.1 gigawatt (GW) Hekinan power station in Aichi, central Japan, home to Toyota Motor Corp. Now 30 years old, Hekinan is the country's biggest coal-fired power plant.

Ammonia is mainly made from hydrogen produced from natural gas and nitrogen from the air. It does not emit CO2 when burned, but its production releases emissions if it is made with fossil fuel.

The project at Hekinan is aimed at achieving use of 20per cent ammonia at a 1 GW unit for about two months, using 30,000-40,000 tonnes of ammonia, by March 2025. If successful, it will be the world's first trial in a large commercial plant, and Japan hopes to use ammonia to gradually replace coal and develop a fully ammonia-fired power plant by 2050.

"For Japan, fuel ammonia is a way of fully utilising coal power plants by turning them zero-emission power by 2050," said Takeo Kikkawa, vice president of International University of Japan.

The advantage of ammonia is that power companies can use existing plants without major modifications and technology for production, transport and storage are already established. At the Hekinan demonstration, except for replacing 48 burners and installing a tank and pipelines, equipment will be kept unchanged.

Also, utilities are familiar with handling the toxic substance with a pungent odour that can damage the respiratory system if inhaled as they use it as a catalyst in denitration systems.

Japan is targeting growing its fuel ammonia demand to 3 million tonnes a year by 2030 from zero now. JERA's goals are lofty: it aims to use a 20per cent ammonia fuel mix at all its coal-fired power plants by 2035, and to develop technology to use 100per cent ammonia in 2040s.