Japan pioneered the use of LNG as a cleaner, albeit still fossil-based, alternative to coal fuel more than five decades ago and Jera now operates some of the world’s largest LNG facilities.
Jera itself aims to achieve “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions in Japan through a mix of low-efficiency coal elimination, ammonia and hydrogen co-firing and renewable energy . Japan itself is aggressively pursuing RE to decarbonize power, but it has included hydrogen and ammonia co-firing in its energy mix policy.
“We plan to introduce this technology to all the coal-fired power plants and if the firing rate becomes 100 percent, then the size is gigantic,” Nakayama says. Ammonia can be “gray,” “blue” or “green” depending on the feedstock and production process. Blue ammonia is decarbonized by 90 percent via CO2 capture, utilization and storage while green ammonia is CO2-free as it uses green hydrogen produced by water electrolysis, powered by renewable energy.