Hydrogen Canada Corp. and South Korea’s largest power company ink clean ammonia deal

Hydrogen Canada Corp. (HCC) and Korea Southern Power (KOSPO) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work on developing a clean ammonia production and export business in Canada.

Specifically, the companies will cooperate on the development of HCC’s clean hydrogen/ammonia project which aims to build and operate a 1 million tonne per annum (mtpa) clean ammonia facility in the Alberta Industrial Heartland and support the development of the export facilities required to transfer the product to markets in Asia.

HCC has already completed pre-front end engineering design (FEED) for the project and plans to commence the FEED phase in early 2025.

As part of the MoU, the companies will back the ongoing development of HCC’s project and review financial and commercial support.

KOSPO, the largest power generation company in South Korea with 12 GW of generation assets representing approximately 10% of the national power grid, is seeking to reduce its overall emission profile by co-firing hydrogen and ammonia in line with the government’s commitment to reduce emissions from the power sector by 44% by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050.

With this in mind, the South Korean government has created the Clean Hydrogen Power Generation Market which will be supporting the long-term supply of clean hydrogen and ammonia to the country.

The country’s demand for hydrogen and ammonia, under the government’s clean power mandates, could be as high as 16 mtpa by 2038.

“This project represents an opportunity to use cost-advantaged, low-carbon natural gas in Alberta to support the decarbonization of South Korea and other Asian countries and to provide a level of energy security to those countries as well,” said Brendan O’Connell, VP Business Development.

“Access to cost-effective carbon sequestration also creates a material strategic advantage for this project in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland. Our partner, E1 Corp., is a major trader of LPG in Asia, including significant volumes of Canadian LPG and it recognizes the marketability of low-cost, reliable energy products sourced from western Canada”.

To note, in 2023, HCC closed its C$10 million (around US$7 million) seed round financing and signed a letter of commitment on an offtake agreement with South Korea-based E1 Corporation (E1), to develop a low-carbon hydrogen/ammonia supply chain from Western Canada to South Korea and other Asian markets.