Techno Economic and Life-Cycle Analysis of Ammonia Used for Power Generation

Ammonia is a promising carbon-free energy carrier for decarbonizing existing fossil fuel power plants. However, its economic viability and life-cycle environmental performance remain uncertain across different power generation technologies. This study develops an integrated techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life-cycle analysis (LCA) framework to evaluate 50% ammonia co-firing in four power generation systems: subcritical pulverized coal (SubC-CP), supercritical pulverized coal (SC-CP), integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), and natural gas combined cycle (NGCC). Process models modified from National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) simulations were used to determine mass and energy balances, while TEA quantified total plant cost, levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), breakeven ammonia price, and CO2 avoidance cost (CAC). LCA evaluated well-to-gate (WTG) CO2 emissions considering both blue and green ammonia. Results show that under the current blue ammonia price of $318/tonne, all ammonia co-firing cases exhibit higher LCOEs than the reference plants, and the breakeven ammonia prices remain below current market values. Blue ammonia reduces WTG CO2 emissions by approximately 30% for coal-fired plants and 19% for NGCC where upstream ammonia production is the major emission source. Replacing blue ammonia with green ammonia further reduces WTG CO2 emissions by 27–36% and decreases the CAC by 38–60%. These results demonstrate that low-carbon, low-cost ammonia production is essential for realizing economically competitive and environmentally sustainable ammonia co-firing in future low-carbon power systems.