Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has signed an MOU on Research & Development of Clean Ammonia-Fueled Gas Turbines with POSCO and the Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST) in pursuit of ammonia-fueled hydrogen gas turbine development. 

POSCO will be handling the production and supply of ammonia, while POSCO and RIST will be jointly pursuing development of the ammonia cracker, and Doosan Heavy will be developing the hydrogen gas turbine and combustor to be used for combustion of the gas generated from ammonia cracking.

The three parties will be focusing on enhancing power generation efficiency by pursuing combustion of the cracked gas, rather than using ammonia itself in the combustion process.

As a chemical compound consisting of hydrogen and nitrogen, ammonia is regarded as being an economical and efficient “hydrogen carrier” as its hydrogen storage capacity per unit of volume is 1.7 times greater than that of hydrogen. With the rising need for green hydrogen adoption being recognized globally, particularly as a way to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, ammonia has been receiving attention as the most viable option for enabling green hydrogen adoption since it already has an established shipping system.

“This MOU provides us with the opportunity to embark on the development of hydrogen gas turbines that use ammonia as fuel,” said Hongook Park, CEO of Doosan Heavy’s Power Services Business Group. “We plan to continuously pursue development of hydrogen gas turbines that are fueled by eco-friendly energy sources, such as LNG, hydrogen and ammonia.”

In addition, Doosan Heavy recently joined the “Green Ammonia Association for Carbon Neutrality,” which is composed of research institutes such as the Korea Institute for Energy Research (KIER) and leading local companies. The council aims to establish an ammonia energy value chain using homegrown technology and cooperate on the development of ammonia-fueled hydrogen gas turbines.