Keppel Infrastructure and ExxonMobil Asia Pacific have inked an agreement to develop access to low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia for scalable commercial and industrial applications including meeting Singapore's power generation needs, Keppel Corporation said in a statement April 20.
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Register NowKeppel said the collaboration will support Jurong Island's sustainability goals and Singapore's National Hydrogen Strategy, which aims to have hydrogen cater for up to half of Singapore's power needs by 2050.
Currently, natural gas meets most of Singapore's power generation demand. But a global energy crunch brought about by high gas prices led to a spike in electricity prices in the city-state, prompting its Energy Market Authority to introduce a series of measures in October 2021 including institutionalizing the setup of a Standby LNG facility and directing generation companies to maintain sufficient fuel for power generation, based on their available generation capacity for power generation.
As part of achieving decarbonization goals, the EMA and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore also issued an expression of interest in December for proposals to build, own and operate low- or zero-carbon power generation and bunkering facilities on Jurong Island.
Singapore is the world's biggest bunkering port, recording marine fuel sales of 47.9 million mt in 2022, according to Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore data.
Advancing hydrogen plans
Keppel said it was also looking to use low-carbon hydrogen for Singapore's first hydrogen-ready 600 MW advanced combined cycle power plant, adding that the the Keppel Sakra Cogen Plant, scheduled for completion in the first half of 2026, is expected to operate with at least 30% hydrogen and will have the capability of shifting to run entirely on hydrogen.
Keppel is conducting a feasibility study of developing a power plant that could use ammonia directly as a fuel on Jurong Island, it said, noting that this would complement Keppel's offering as Singapore's leading independent power producer and retailer.
ExxonMobil, for its part, is advancing its low-carbon hydrogen facility at its integrated complex in Baytown, Texas, from where ammonia will be produced, the statement said.
The low-carbon hydrogen, ammonia and carbon capture facility is expected to produce 1 Bcf/d of low-carbon hydrogen, making it the largest low-carbon hydrogen project in the world at planned startup in 2027-28, it said, adding that over 98% of the associated CO2 produced by the facility, or around 7 million mt/year, is expected to be captured and permanently stored.