The use of ammonia in Japanese power plants
According to public broadcaster NHK, Japanese government officials including Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry, will present an offer related to the technology of using ammonia as boiler fuel in coal-fired power plants.
JERA, Japan’s largest electricity producerannounced at the end of June that three-month co-firing tests of coal with a 20% ammonia admixture at the Hekinan thermal power plant in central Japan yielded “positive results.” The company announced that it would introduce such a mixture to all its power plants within the next decade.
Ecological and cost challenges of ammonia as a fuel
Ammonia does not emit carbon dioxide during combustion. However, most of this fuel is produced by burning natural gas or LPG, which emits pollutants, which means that “gray” ammonia does not lead to a net reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
Currently, costs are also a challenge. As Nikkei Asia wrote, citing data from the Tokyo government, generating energy from burning coal with 20% with an admixture of ammonia would cost approximately 12.9 yen (PLN 0.43) per kilowatt hour (kWh). In the case of generating energy only from ammonia produced from natural gas, the cost is 23.5 yen (approx. PLN 0.6) per kWh. This is more than twice as much as the 10.4 yen (approx. PLN 0.27) cost of burning coal.
Polish-Japanese cooperation in decarbonization and nuclear energy
According to NHK, “Warsaw hopes to accelerate its efforts to… decarbonization through the introduction of advanced Japanese technology“.
During its visit to Poland, the Japanese side also intends to discuss technical cooperation of Japanese companies in the construction of new nuclear power plants in Poland – revealed the Japanese broadcaster.
Krzysztof Pawliszak (PAP)
