Johnson Sustainable technologies firm Johnson Matthey and Korean heavy industrial firm Doosan Enerbility have signed an agreement to develop hydrogen-fuelled power plants in South Korea.
The partnership aims to support the South Korean government's plans to increase the share of clean hydrogen-based power generation from zero percent in 2022 to 2.1 percent by 2030 and 7.1 percent by 2036.
JM will provide innovative ammonia cracking technology and catalyst, which converts clean ammonia into nitrogen and hydrogen. The clean hydrogen can then be used to power turbines, which are key components of hydrogen-fuelled or hydrogen-LNG fuelled combined cycle power plants.
Analysis from the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials shows that using ammonia cracking technology to enable hydrogen-fuelled turbines could reduce carbon emissions by 10.4 percent when a gas turbine is fired up with 30 percent hydrogen. It can be lowered to 21.4 percent when there is 50 percent hydrogen present. According to data from IHS, hydrogen demand in 2030 for power and heat generation is set to be 2.1 – 4.6 million tonnes globally.
Jane Toogood, Chief Executive of Catalyst Technologies at JM, said on the partnership, "This is a significant step and could lead to a number of industries introducing clean hydrogen-fuelled turbines in power plants around the world. Whilst the technology we are developing for Doosan is specifically for the power industry, it could also decarbonise downstream industries through access to low carbon power."
Hongook Park, CEO of Doosan Enerbility's Power Services Business Group, said, "Ammonia cracking, which is helping to lower the entry barrier to combined cycle hydrogen power generation, is a key technology that will contribute to carbon neutrality. This partnership signifies that the entire value chain for combined cycle hydrogen power generation will be built, resulting in hydrogen production through to hydrogen end-users."
Doosan Enerbility's expects to complete the development of the 380MW fully hydrogen-powered gas turbine by 2027.
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