JGC Holdings Corporation held a groundbreaking ceremony today in the Tanashio Industrial Area in Namie, Fukushima, marking the start of construction of a pilot plant to demonstrate production technology that will be applied to synthesize green ammonia using renewable energy.

The plant will be used in a large-scale alkaline water electrolysis system development and green chemical plant demonstration project¹ jointly conducted with Asahi Kasei Corporation, which was selected for New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) green innovation funding.²

The ceremony was attended by JGC Holdings Chairman and CEO Masayuki Sato, Senior Executive Officer and Technology Commercialization Officer Masahiro Aika, and other stakeholders. With participants showing their commitment to a safe and successful enterprise, ground was broken, followed by speeches from Namie Mayor Eiko Yoshida, METI Director-General of Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy Hiroo Inoue, and Strategy Architect Eiji Ohira at NEDO.

　
　　　　　　　　　Ceremony Participants 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Breaking ground for the new plant

JGC has been working with Asahi Kasei in this project since August 2021 to develop an integrated control system for optimized plant operations in production of "green" chemicals such as green ammonia, which uses hydrogen produced with renewable energy sources as feedstock, as will be demonstrated in this project. A basic agreement on the pilot plant site was concluded with Town of Namie, Fukushima, in March of this year.³

Startup is expected within FY2024, and operation is set to continue until FY2026. Through this demonstration, JGC Holdings will verify the integrated control system as green ammonia production technology is further refined and established.

Green ammonia production employing hydrogen derived from renewable energy is expected to support low-carbon ammonia production. JGC Holdings will apply insight from this project to establish efficient and stable green ammonia production technology using renewably sourced hydrogen as feedstock.

1 Start of green chemical plant demonstration project utilizing large-scale hydrogen production system (JGC Holdings press release)

2 Adoption as a Green Innovation Fund project (NEDO press release)

3 Progress in demonstrating technology for green ammonia production (JGC Holdings press release)