Woodside weighs hydrogen in Japan

Oil and gas major Woodside last week inked an agreement with a Japanese consortium to study exporting hydrogen as ammonia for use in decarbonising coal-fired power generation in Japan.

The consortium, which consists of JERA, Marubeni and IHI, received approval from Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation for a feasibility study covering the entire hydrogen-as-ammonia value chain.

The study will examine the construction and operation of world-scale ammonia facilities and the optimisation of supply chain costs. As part of the study, Woodside will investigate the transition from blue to green hydrogen for export.

Blue hydrogen is produced from gas using steam methane reforming, with related carbon emissions offset, while green hydrogen is produced from renewable energy using electrolysis.