Japan’s largest power generation company Jera , a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power , Chubu Electric Power , and IHI Corp , announced plans to begin using ammonia as a fuel source at one of its existing coal-fired power plants. The company expects that the co-firing demonstration project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The demonstration project is specifically designed to establish ammonia co-firing technology by burning both coal and ammonia at a large-scale commercial coal-fired power plant. The demonstration project will then be able to evaluate boiler heat absorption and the environmental impact of co-firing, such as the impact of exhaust gases. Jera and IHI will run the demonstration project at the 1 GW Hekinan coal plant for nearly four years, from June 2021 to March 2025.
Ammonia will account for 20 per cent of the co-firing fuel source, the first time globally that such a large amount of ammonia will be co-fired in a large-scale and commercial coal-fired power plant.