Ireland May Host First Ammonia-Fueled Power Plant

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The first ammonia-fired power plant in Europe could be located in Ireland following a deal between Bord Gais Energy (Cork, Ireland), the U.K.'s Centrica plc (Windsor, England) and Japan's Mitsubishi Power (Yokohama, Japan).

The memorandum of understanding covers the development, construction, and operation of an ammonia-fueled project at the existing 445-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power station at Whitegate in Cork, owned by Bord Gais Energy. The partners said that the utilization of low carbon ammonia as a clean and sustainable fuel source for power generation "has the potential to provide security of supply while reducing greenhouse gas emissions." The plan will be to use Whitegate as a global demonstration site for ammonia-fired power generation technology in order to assess the costs and potential scalability of low-carbon ammonia as a green fuel. It is unclear how much will be invested or whether the proposed 100-MW plant will be used for baseload power or as a peaker plant. It is very early days for this technology, and there are only a handful of proposed large-scale ammonia power projects on the radar. Industrial Info is tracking one involving Mitsubishi and partners looking to build a 100% ammonia-fired gas turbine plant on Jurong Island, Singapore.

Chris O'Shea, group chief executive of Centrica, said: "At Centrica we believe that all energy can be green energy and that this can also improve energy security. This is one of the many projects Centrica is working on to demonstrate how the hydrogen economy could work in practice. In this instance, we hope to be able to show how hydrogen could be stored and transported as low carbon ammonia, delivering cleaner energy for customers at the point of use."

Centrica, which owns Bord Gais Energy, will be providing the location and the delivery of low-carbon ammonia while the power-generating technology will come from Mitsubishi. The company recently announced that it had successfully completed a combustion test of an ammonia single-fuel burner as part of its development of ammonia utilization technology for thermal power generation boilers. Using a combustion test furnace with fuel consumption of 0.5 ton per hour, it conducted a single-fuel burner test using an ammonia burner, and a high-ratio ammonia co-firing test with coal. It said both tests confirmed "stable combustion, reduced nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions compared to coal firing, and complete combustion of the ammonia". It is currently building its H-25 gas turbine that would be 100% fueled by ammonia, which it hopes to launch commercially in 2025.

Speaking about Whitegate, Javier Cavada, president and chief executive officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Mitsubishi Power, stated: "Mitsubishi Power is the frontrunner in the development of technology to enable the direct firing of ammonia for power generation. This collaboration with Centrica Energy and Bord Gáis Energy...is truly a leap forward toward a cleaner, greener energy future, enabled by Europe's first ammonia-fired power generation facility utilizing low carbon ammonia."

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