IHI, one of Japan’s largest LNG terminal manufacturers, is investigating the potential for modifying existing terminals near gas-fired plants to receive and store ammonia.

The company plans to draw on its corrosion expertise and experimental materials technologies to study the feasibility of minimally modifying these terminals during the second half of this decade.

IHI has built just under a third of Japan’s LNG receiving and storage terminals and half of the country’s storage tanks.

2050 – Japan’s target year for net zero

Ammonia is rapidly emerging as the preferred carrier for hydrogen. And in Japan, the chemical is being trialled as a fuel for thermal generation in its own right as part of the country’s push to reach net zero by 2050.

IHI is developing technology to use ammonia to fuel boilers and gas turbines, while Japanese energy firm Jera plans to begin a demonstration project co-firing 20pc ammonia and 80pc coal at its Hekinan thermal power plant later this year.

Hydrogen society

Japan is an early-mover in hydrogen, having launched its national hydrogen strategy in 2017 with an ambition for the gas to be used throughout multiple sectors to build a ‘hydrogen society’. However, the country’s strategy has been criticised in a report by thinktank Renewable Energy Institute (REI), which argues that it promotes the use of hydrogen in sectors where direct electrification and renewables present more economic options, such as mobility, heating and power.

The thinktank is also critical of co-firing ammonia with coal, calculating that, even if ammonia is 20pc co-fired at highest-efficiency coal power plants, “emissions will be twice that of natural gas-fired power”. It adds that emissions would exceed those from natural gas-fired power even if ammonia was co-fired at 50pc.

Japan also promotes the use of emissions-intensive, fossil fuel-derived hydrogen and has fallen behind Europe on domestic green hydrogen production, REI adds.

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Author: Polly Martin