Mitsubishi Corporation and Amogy entered a strategic partnership that will focus on accelerating the adoption of Amogy’s ammonia-to-power and ammonia cracking technology in large-scale hydrogen carrier applications in East Asia, particularly Japan and South Korea.

The joint study, set to commence in December 2023 with SK Innovation, will first assess a large-scale deployment of Amogy’s technology, including analysis of costs across the value chain, and explore opportunities for market expansion across the ammonia and hydrogen supply chain. Upon the completion of the initial phase, the three companies are looking to explore joint pilot opportunities in the strategic regions.

Ammonia, a versatile and widely used chemical compound, has emerged as a promising renewable fuel and a cost-effective carrier of hydrogen. Ammonia can be created by combining hydrogen and nitrogen at the export location. It is then decomposed (cracked) back to hydrogen and nitrogen at the receiving site and used in multiple applications including power generation, a process that enables safe and efficient transportation.

Ammonia has high energy density, favorable storage characteristics, and a well-established transportation infrastructure due to its use in industrial products such as fertilizer.

Amogy’s technology combines ammonia cracking and hydrogen fuel-cell power generation into a single system, enabling streamlined and efficient use of this low-carbon fuel. In addition, Amogy’s ammonia cracking technology is expected to have high potential to be utilized as hydrogen carrier in large-scale transportation.

Countries such as Japan and Korea suffer from the lack of abundant renewable resources, necessitating the imports low-carbon fuels. Both countries have identified ammonia as an attractive and commercially viable hydrogen carrier and plan to use it to decarbonize their power generation, industrial heat generation, and maritime shipping in the near future.

Japan plans to utilize 3 million metric tons per year (MTA) of ammonia as fuel by 2030 and anticipates increasing its ammonia imports to 30 MTA by 2050. Korea announced ambitious plans to utilize hydrogen and ammonia to meet 7.1% country’s power demand by 2036.

Both Mitsubishi Corporation and SK Innovation have participated in Amogy’s recent $150M Series B fundraising which was led by SK Innovation.