GE Vernova’s Gas Power business has signed a joint development agreement with Japan’s IHI Corporation to progress the development of a new gas turbine combustor capable of using ammonia as a fuel.

The collaboration is based on an earlier MoU between the two companies and builds upon IHI’s successful development of a 2MW gas turbine using 100% liquid ammonia. Over recent years, IHI has been experimenting with ammonia in a 2 MW gas turbine at its research and development facility in Yokohama, Japan. A successful outcome of this was the world’s first power generation through combustion using 100% liquid ammonia, demonstrating a more than 99% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions with minimal emission of nitrous oxide (N2O). 

The new project will test ammonia as a viable fuel option for power generation compatible with GE Vernova’s 6F.03, 7F and 9F gas turbines, aiming to reduce greenhouse gases generated by more than 99%. According to Jeffrey Goldmeer, GE Vernova Director of Hydrogen Value Chain “with IHI, we aim to develop and validate the combustion technology in the next two years, leading to a potential commercially available product by 2030. The joint exploration will focus on crafting the combustion system that will convert GE’s F-class turbines, already deployed worldwide, to burn ammonia at scale. That will require a two-stage combustion system, featuring “both a rich and a lean stage, because even when you burn ammonia originally made with carbon-free sources, nitrogen oxide emissions are potentially very high.”

GE Vernova also recognises that there are some challenges, noting that it is toxic and moving pure ammonia or anhydrous ammonia has some risk. Despite these challenges, Goldmeer emphasises that this project shows that the partnership is “on the journey to lowering emissions.” Indeed, IHI and GE Vernova are already working with Sembcorp to retrofit two GE 9F gas turbines at Sembcorp’s Sakra power plant to run on 100% ammonia fuel.