Japan-headed energy utility JERA Co., Inc (JERA) has announced that it and compatriot IHI Corporation (IHI) begin small-volume utilization of fuel ammonia at JERA’s Hekinan Thermal Power Station Unit 5 in Hekinan City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
As announced in May 2021, JERA and IHI are working together on a project to demonstrate large-volume utilization – 20 percent of heating value – of fuel ammonia at a large-scale commercial coal-fired power plant.
The project will run for approximately four years from June 2021 to March 2025 and aims to achieve an ammonia co-firing rate of 20 percent at Hekinan Thermal Power Station Unit 4 in fiscal 2024.
With five units totaling 4.1 GW of power capacity, Hekinan Thermal Power Station is Japan’s largest coal-fired power plant. Both Unit 4 and Unit 5 are 1 GW capacity units.
The small-volume utilization that has begun at Unit 5 is for the purpose of developing a co-firing burner to be used for large-volume utilization at Unit 4.
Replacing two of the 48 burners at Unit 5 with test burners, during the roughly 6 months from now to March 2022 JERA and IHI will examine the effects of different burner materials and combustion times to identify the required conditions for co-firing burners.
The approximately 200 tonnes of ammonia to be used will be supplied to the test burners at Unit 5 from denitration tanks on the premises of the power station.
