It is essential to reduce CO2 emissions from the power generation sector to accomplish the CO2 emission reduction targets of the Paris agreement. For this reason, it is desirable to introduce significant CO2-free energy such as renewable energy, but there is a limit to the amount available in Japan.
JGC CORPORATION, the engineering business company of the JGC Group, considers ammonia as a hydrogen carrier and energy carrier, and studys the supply chain for manufacturing, transporting and utilizing CO2-free ammonia from fossil resources and renewable energy, and are also developing technologies for ammonia production from renewable energy.
By commercial implementation of this technology, it is possible to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from the power generation sector.

Hydrogen has been attracting attention as a clean fuel. However, since hydrogen is difficult to transport, various hydrogen carrier for hydrogen transport has been studied.
Ammonia has already been manufactured and transported on a large scale, and a technology for power generation using ammonia as fuel is also being developed.
Ammonia is attracting attention as the most promising as a hydrogen carrier since ammonia has the largest amount of hydrogen per volume at the time of transport in comparison with other hydrogen carriers. Handling and transport of ammonia has already been established on a commercial scale. Furthermore, combustion technologies using ammonia as fuel have also been developed for gas turbines and boilers. If it is possible to produce CO2-free ammonia that avoids CO2 emissions during its production, it can contribute significantly to the reduction of CO2 emissions from power generation sector.

JGC studies CO2-free ammonia production by two routes.

One is the conventional ammonia production by natural gas reforming in combination with CCS (CO2 capture and storage) or EOR (enhanced oil recovery).
Another route is CO2-free ammonia production from renewable energy such as photovoltaic or wind power. JGC and AIST(National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology）jointly developed new ammonia synthesis catalyst and process to produce ammonia in lower reaction pressures and temperatures compared with current technologies to match d hydrogen produced by electrolysis.
We succeeded in demonstrating a renewable-based ammonia value chain, including CO2-free hydrogen production using photovoltaic power, converting the hydrogen to CO2-free ammonia using our developed technology and generating electricity using produced ammonia as fuel by a small gas turbine. This demonstration is the world's first of total ammonia value chain as a hydrogen carrier.
JGC Group would like to contribute to the significant reduction of CO2 emissions from the power sector by the implementation of CO2-free ammonia supply chain taking advantage of JGC’s engineering technology.

AIST(National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology）

CO2 Free Ammonia
https://www.jgc.com/jp/business/tech-innovation/environment/co2-free.html