IHI Corporation and GE Vernova have completed a combustion test facility in Japan to develop gas turbines capable of burning pure ammonia, marking the latest attempt to commercialize a technology that faces steep economic and technical obstacles.
The facility at IHI’s Aioi Works will begin testing full-scale prototype combustors this summer, according to executives from both companies. The partners aim to have commercially viable ammonia-powered systems ready by 2030 under a joint development agreement signed in January 2024.
The effort comes as multiple manufacturers race to develop ammonia combustion technology, with Japan’s Mitsubishi Power pursuing similar 40-megawatt systems for potential deployment as early as 2025. However, significant challenges remain across the sector.
Green ammonia currently costs three to six times more than conventional ammonia to produce, according to industry estimates. Power generation using ammonia also suffers from extremely low conversion efficiency, with only about 17% of input energy converted to electricity while the remainder is lost as waste heat.
The companies must also address nitrogen oxide emissions, which can spike when ammonia decomposes during combustion. IHI previously developed a 2-megawatt ammonia turbine that reduced such greenhouse gas byproducts by more than 99%, though scaling the technology to larger commercial turbines presents additional engineering complexities.
