The Amburn project commences the first stage of testing for world-first ammonia fed combustion system
On July 1st 2024, the Amburn project commenced Stage 1 testing of its innovative ammonia fed combustion system at 300-500kW. Researchers at Cardiff University’s School of Engineering have been designing the world-first equipment over the last year and have officially started testing the novel burner with ammonia at Cardiff University’s testing facilities. This marks the conclusion of a large amount of work to prepare for the first real life testing of this technology, but the ambition does not stop there. Later in 2024, Flogas and Cardiff University will progress on to Stage 2 testing where the burner will be scaled up to 1MW capacity. Finally in early 2025, the burner integrated in a 1MW steam boiler will operate at 1MW at a customer site of Flogas’ to demonstrate how the technology could replace and decarbonise off-grid industry, with the ultimate aim of preparing the technology for a commercial rollout.
In 2023, Flogas Britain and Cardiff University were awarded £3.4m from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero through the Industrial Fuel Switching Competition to develop a world-first ammonia steam boiler in Phase 2 of the Amburn project. This innovative technology represents a crucial step towards decarbonising off-grid businesses across the UK by replacing fossil fuelled burners. The Amburn project is developing and demonstrating an ammonia-fuelled steam boiler which, when fed with zero carbon ammonia, offers a solution for decarbonising industrial heat. With developments in the production of green ammonia, Amburn has the potential to not only reduce carbon emissions, but also to open up new avenues for sustainable energy adoption, paving the way for a greener industrial future.
Dr. Syed Mashruk, Zero Carbon Fuels theme leader at Cardiff University’s Net Zero Innovation Institute (NZII), said, “This has been a huge team effort by everyone involved in the project. I’m proud that these experiments will be the first of their kind and the ammonia powered novel combustion system designed by us at Cardiff University has the potential to change the way that we power industry.
This test will provide more insight into the applicability of this technology to decarbonise industry that doesn’t have access to grid power. Learnings from these experiments will speed up the progress to net zero. Our industry partner, Flogas, has been enormously helpful and an invaluable support for the project.”
