JERA, Japan’s largest thermal power generation company, has reached an agreement with Exxon Mobil [XOM:US] to jointly develop a low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia manufacturing project in the US, as reported by Reuters on March 25. Exxon Mobil is developing the world’s largest low-carbon hydrogen production plant at its Baytown Complex in Houston. Scheduled to commence operation in 2028, the plant would be capable of producing 900,000 tons of hydrogen and over 1 million tons of ammonia per year. JERA unveiled that it might invest in the Houston project and import around 500,000 tons of low-carbon ammonia annually to meet its demand in Japan.

JERA is seeking enough ammonia supply for its clean-burning power generation business in Japan. It is also collaborating with CF Industries [CF:US], a major US fertilizer ammonia supplier, to build ammonia production facilities in the US. They plan to begin construction of an ammonia factory in the southern US within a year, with half of the plant’s output going to JERA. This would secure JERA around 500,000 tons of ammonia a year, contributing to JERA’s target of importing 2 million tons of ammonia annually by 2030. Recently, the Japanese company has just launched a pilot program to co-fire 20% of ammonia with coal at its Hekinan thermal power station in central Japan. It aims to raise the ammonia fuel mixture to 50% by 2028 and eventually transition to operating a power plant solely on ammonia.

Sources:

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/jera-exxon-explore-development-hydrogen-ammonia-production-project-us-2024-03-25/

https://www.jera.co.jp/en/news/information/20240325_1852

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Energy/Japan-s-JERA-IHI-to-test-ammonia-as-fuel-at-coal-power-plant

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Energy/Japan-s-JERA-and-Inpex-to-invest-in-U.S.-ammonia-projects