Doosan Enerbility and Britain's JM work together for ammonia cracking business

By Lim Chang-won Posted : December 1, 2022, 14:22 Updated : December 1, 2022, 17:59

[Courtesy of Doosan Enerbility]

SEOUL -- Doosan Enerbility, a power plant equipment manufacturer in South Korea, tied up with Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemicals and sustainable technologies company in Britain, to secure ammonia cracking technology that decomposes ammonia at high temperatures to produce hydrogen. Ammonia is considered an essential part of a sustainable hydrogen ecosystem.

Ammonia is produced through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and nitrogen at high pressure and temperatures. Ammonia cracking is a simple and cost-effective method of manufacturing hydrogen. Thermal decomposition or catalytic cracking is the most common technique used to generate hydrogen from ammonia.

Under a memorandum of understanding, Johnson Matthey (JM) and Doosan Enerbility would jointly develop integrated design technology for ammonia cracking process and hydrogen complex power generation. JM will provide design technology and catalysts. Doosan Enerbility will provide technologies necessary for business promotion, such as detailed decomposer process design and equipment production.

"Ammonia cracking, which lowers entry barriers to hydrogen complex power generation, is a key technology that will contribute to carbon neutrality," Doosan Enerbility's power service business head Park Hong-ook said in a statement on December 1. "Through this agreement, it is meaningful that Doosan Enerbility will establish all the value chains of hydrogen complex power generation that cover not only hydrogen utilization but also production."

Ammonia is seen as an ideal resource to establish an eco-friendly hydrogen fuel cell-based infrastructure. When ammonia cracking technology is applied to hydrogen complex power generation, nitrogen can improve the performance of hydrogen turbines and increase energy efficiency.

South Korea has presented a goal to commercialize a 300-megawatt hydrogen gas turbine by 2040. As a bridge power in energy conversion, the government aims to commercialize mixed combustion technologies that burn more than 30 percent of hydrogen with natural gas by 2035. Doosan Enerbility and the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) have been involved in a state project to develop a 380-megawatt turbine combustor burning 50 percent of hydrogen.
 
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