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Tackling alternative energy, ammonia: what is an environment-friendly ammonia canned motor pump?

An Essential Challenge for a Decarbonized Society
New pump structure that does not leak ammonia

Ammonia, a potential carbon-free fuel

Solar power, wind power, geothermal heat, and hydrogen. An energy shift is needed to achieve a decarbonized society. The entire world, including power companies, is working together to secure electricity to protect lives and industry with new fuels and power sources to replace petroleum energy.
One of these garnering attention is ammonia. Many of you imagine a clear and colorless gas and its strong, irritating smell. Approximately 80% of ammonia use is for fertilizer and 20% for industrial applications. It is a minor fuel compared to hydrogen, but it has a very high potential as a carbon-free fuel.

Benefits of ammonia

If ammonia is co-fired with coal, existing thermal power plant equipment can be used without modification, and no CO2 is emitted when it is burned. Moreover, it has the advantage of being easier to handle than hydrogen. For example, transportation and transfer. Gas is generally transported in large quantities by lowering the temperature and liquefying it. Hydrogen does not liquefy under normal pressure unless cooled to -253°C, while ammonia liquefies at -33°C. Furthermore, since hydrogen can be synthesized from ammonia, its use has been expanding as a hydrogen carrier. The roadmap issued by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in December 2022 sets a target of 3 million tons of domestic ammonia energy use by 2030 and 30 million tonsby 2050.

 

Development of a new pump structure that does not leak ammonia

Our environmentally friendly ammonia canned motor pump is an essential device for each phase of ammonia production, transport, and use. This product, which we began developing in 2020, brings together all of our pump technologies. Ammonia, with a strong odor and toxicity, is difficult to handle and should never be allowed to leak from the pump. As a result, a new pump was needed to safely pump cryogenic liquids in a sealed state.

In response, we developed an ammonia canned motor pump combining our technologies with well-established reliability, such as cryogenic submerged pumps (cryogenic pumps) for transferring liquefied natural gas (LNG), and API VS6-type pumps and canned motor pumps for ammonia for fertilizer. We have succeeded in developing a pump with a motor that is completely immersed in the liquid and demonstrates greatly improved suction capability. Only we have the technical expertise to develop motors of a high standard with different output levels tailored to customer specifications.
We continue to take on the challenge of using toxic and combustible ammonia as a safe and secure fuel and contribute to establishing a supply chain to meet SDGs.