Published February 2024
One energy vector that could spur the transition to a low-carbon economy is hydrogen. However, at the moment, issues with hydrogen storage and delivery are hindering its utilization. Because of this, the energy community is investigating a variety of indirect storage media, including methanol and ammonia. Out of all the carbon-free carriers, ammonia has a higher volumetric energy density than compressed hydrogen. Therefore, it is proposed that ammonia can provide a feasible next-generation energy conveyance, storage and power production system because of its well-established transportation network and high degree of flexibility. This review highlights previous significant research as well as ongoing work, highlighting the challenges the technologies under review must overcome before they can be implemented and commercially deployed on a larger scale to use this chemical as a feasible energy vector for power applications.
In particular, green ammonia, or e-ammonia, is a fuel that holds great promise and is touted to be necessary for many energy-intensive industries. The primary focus of this review is ammonia’s potential usage as a carbon-free fuel for gas turbines. Ammonia may prove to be a more beneficial hydrogen carrier than liquid hydrogen in terms of transportation. Although ammonia has a number of technical difficulties when used as a fuel for gas turbines, it offers several advantages as a hydrogen carrier system.
This review covers technical and economic evaluation of a 40-MW class simple cycle gas turbine system cofired by ammonia (20% lower heating value [LHV]) and natural gas. The main fuels are green ammonia and natural gas. A comparative economic analysis is also provided when the same gas turbine is fueled with 100% natural gas and 100% ammonia, respectively. Both natural gas and ammonia are assumed to be available at the battery limit and hence, their sourcing is not covered. However, for green ammonia, the transportation freight rates are added to the price of green ammonia available at the battery limit. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is estimated from the gas turbine for the three cases. A comparative carbon emission is also shown for the various cases as well.
- Ammonia (20% LHV) and natural gas cofired
- 100% natural gas fired
- 100% ammonia direct fired
This review includes the process flow diagram, material balance, major equipment list with specification, cost data of battery limit and off-sites, variable costs, capital expenditure and operating expenditure, LCOE and overall production cost.
This Process Economics Program (PEP) review will present a techno-economic analysis of using ammonia as a fuel in gas turbines. The economic evaluation presented is PEP’s independent interpretation of the commercial process based on information presented in the open literature, such as patents or technical articles. It may not reflect, in whole or in part, the actual plant configuration.