Japan’s LNG trading giant Jera is looking to buy ammonia supplies over a long-term period to fuel its power plants.
The joint venture of Tepco and Chubu Electric said in a statement on Friday it would conduct an international competitive bidding round to buy up to 500,000 tons of ammonia per year.
It is looking to secure FOB supplies from the 2027 financial year to sometime in 2040s.
Jera said it has sent a request for proposals describing bidding conditions to more than 30 companies.
The move is a part of Jera’s efforts to slash emissions from its domestic but also overseas businesses to zero by 2050s.
Jera is already working on a project to demonstrate the use of ammonia fuel at its Hekinan thermal power station, aiming to switch 20 percent of the fuel at Unit 4 to ammonia by the late 2020s.
“Given the steady progress of this demonstration project, Jera has decided to consider fuel ammonia suppliers in parallel, and to conduct an international competitive bid,” it said.
The firm said it would evaluate the proposals received and, “after selecting multiple companies by around May of this year, move forward in discussing specifics with them.”