Japan co-fired 20% ammonia in a coal power station — and cut its carbon emissions by 20% without building anything new.

 

Japan co-fired 20% ammonia in a coal power station — and cut its carbon emissions by 20% without building anything new.

Decarbonising existing fossil fuel infrastructure — the coal plants, the gas turbines, the industrial boilers already built and already paid for — is one of the hardest problems in the energy transition. You cannot simply turn them off: they provide baseload power that renewable alternatives cannot yet replace continuously. Japan found a bridge solution: replace a percentage of the fossil fuel with green ammonia, made from renewable hydrogen, without modifying the boiler beyond a fuel injection system upgrade.

JERA's Hekinan Power Station in Aichi Prefecture — a 1,000-megawatt coal unit — co-fired 20% ammonia alongside coal in 2023 under a NEDO-funded demonstration programme. The ammonia burns cleanly: it contains no carbon, so its combustion produces nitrogen and water, not CO₂. A 20% ammonia blend delivers an immediate 20% reduction in carbon emissions per kilowatt-hour — from an existing plant, without a decade of new construction.

The ammonia was produced from green hydrogen — electrolysis powered by Australian and Saudi Arabian renewable electricity — and shipped to Japan in existing ammonia tankers already used for fertiliser trade. No new shipping infrastructure. No new port facilities. No new storage technology beyond what the fertiliser industry already operates.

JERA's target is 50% ammonia co-firing at Hekinan by 2027. Full ammonia combustion at new-build units by 2030. Japan is not waiting for coal to become uneconomical. It is decarbonising it while it runs.

Source: JERA Co. Inc. & New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), 2024

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