EGCO-QPL, Korean firm to pioneer ammonia co-fired plant


Quezon Power (Philippines) Ltd. Co. (QPL) of Thailand’s EGCO Group and South Korean firm Doosan Enerbility Co. Ltd. have cemented a deal targeting to pioneer ammonia co-firing at QPL’s coal-fired power generation facility in Mauban, Quezon.

According to Quezon Power, it inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the South Korean multinational firm “to study the feasibility of ammonia co-fired generation at EGCO Group’s Quezon power plant in the Philippines to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions.”

The company said the MOU “will support EGCO group’s strategic plan to reduce its carbon dioxide emission intensity by 10-percent within 2030.”

As explained, lowering carbon footprint in fossil fuel-fed facilities, primarily coal plants, emerges as the main advantage of ammonia co-firing in these types of electricity generating assets.

With most, if not all, energy markets globally now focusing on decarbonization to abate climate change risks, it has been specified that cutting back emissions through innovative solutions like ammonia co-firing may eventually thrive as viable strategy to turn thermal plants into cleaner power generating fleets.

That technology could complement other solutions being enforced in energy markets – including mammoth renewable energy installations, energy storage systems; as well as carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) which is also being advanced to commercial scale rollout.

Doosan, in particular, started last year its development of green ammonia dual-fuel boilers to be deployed for co-firing generation at coal plants, its partnership with KEPCO Engineering & Construction and Samsung C&T’s Engineering and Construction Group.

Apart from the Philippine energy market, Doosan is also pursuing the same experiment on ammonia-mixed fuel combustion technology for thermal plants in Vietnam.

For EGCO Group, its Philippine subsidiary Quezon Power emphasized that the Thai firm is aiming for a business direction anchored on “cleaner, smarter and stronger” solutions to drive sustainable growth.”

It added that such long-term strategy for its businesses in the region includes Quezon Power, and that has been cast with “the ultimate goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.”

EGCO’s carbon emissions reduction target is aligned with the Thai government’s aspiration to become carbon neutral by 2050 for it to clinch its net zero emissions target by 2065.