PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas major Woodside last week inked an agreement with a Japanese consortium to study exporting hydrogen as ammonia for use in decarbonising coal-fired power generation in Japan.
The consortium, which consists of JERA, Marubeni and IHI, received approval from Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation for a feasibility study covering the entire hydrogen-as-ammonia value chain.
The study will examine the construction and operation of world-scale ammonia facilities and the optimisation of supply chain costs. As part of the study, Woodside will investigate the transition from blue to green hydrogen for export.
Blue hydrogen is produced from gas using steam methane reforming, with related carbon emissions offset, while green hydrogen is produced from renewable energy using electrolysis.
In both production processes, hydrogen is combined with nitrogen to form ammonia to enable it to be shipped as a liquid.
CEO Peter Coleman said that the agreement was another step forward in Woodside’s exploration of the potential that hydrogen had as a clean source of fuel.
“Woodside and its partners in Japan have forged new energy pathways before and can do so again, as we expect by 2030 to see large-scale hydrogen production around the world and we intend to be part of that,” Coleman said.