With so much talk about hydrogen, some are turning the discussion to the potential of including ammonia-based generation to circumvent some of the inconvenient truths of hydrogen, i.e. its transportation difficulty, safety issues, and flammability.
By contrast, while there is little infrastructure to support high volumes of hydrogen, some areas of the world (including the U.S. Gulf Coast) already support the bulk transportation and utilization of ammonia.
Further, ammonia derived from hydrogen can be transported far more easily than hydrogen (and in far greater quantity) via tankers, similar to how natural gas is shipped around the world in the form of LNG.
With this in mind, GE Vernova and IHI are working together to develop a gas turbine combustor capable of being used for ammonia-based electric power generation. The combustor will be compatible with GE Vernova’s 6F.03, 7F and 9F gas turbines. Combustion testing will take place in IHI’s facilities in Japan.
IHI has already successfully developed a 2 MW gas turbine that can run on 100% liquid ammonia. This machine demonstrated over 99% reduction of greenhouse gases, with minimal emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O). The next phase is to scale up the technology.
Jeffrey Goldmeer, GE Vernova Director of Hydrogen Value Chain, said the next two years will validate a two-stage combustor featuring a rich and a lean stage to minimize NOx. Testing will be done to ready the combustor for deployment on larger GE turbines with commercial availability targeted by 2030.
Part of the goal, he added, is to provide a combustor that could be retrofitted into existing gas turbines to enable plants to transition from natural gas to ammonia with minimal upgrades needed to the fuel system and balance-of-plant systems. The Sembcorp Sakra power plant in Singapore is expected to be one of the first sites to use ammonia to power GE 9F turbines.
“We’re starting to see traction from customers,” said Goldmeer. “They’re asking, ‘Should ammonia be part of our plan, too? How could this help us in our decarbonization journey?’”
For a counter-view of the viability of decarbonizing gas turbines through the use of green hydrogen, please read: “Green Hydrogen Powering Gas Turbines? The numbers don’t add up.”
