Amogy and LOTTE Fine Chemical have signed an MOU to explore ammonia to hydrogen and ammonia to power applications across hydrogen refueling, distributed power and marine fuel.
The companies signed a memorandum of understanding on September 10 to evaluate projects in three areas: hydrogen refueling, distributed ammonia to power and marine ammonia bunkering. The agreement is not yet a project commitment, and the companies have not disclosed specific capacities, investment levels or deployment dates. Its significance instead lies in the attempt to link infrastructure that already exists with technologies designed to convert ammonia into usable hydrogen and electricity.
LOTTE Fine Chemical brings the supply side. The company operates what it describes as Asia’s largest ammonia import, storage and distribution infrastructure, centered on Ulsan. In April 2026, it completed a commercial green ammonia import and subsequently supplied approximately 600 tonnes of ammonia to an ammonia dual fuel vessel at Ulsan Port. The operation was reported by the Ulsan Port Authority as the world’s first commercial port to ship ammonia bunkering operation.
That infrastructure matters because ammonia can be transported and stored using an established industrial supply chain, while hydrogen presents considerably more demanding storage and transport requirements. Ammonia is liquefied at approximately minus 33 degrees Celsius, compared with about minus 253 degrees Celsius for hydrogen, making ammonia a potentially more practical carrier for internationally traded hydrogen derived from renewable electricity.
The proposed hydrogen refueling model would effectively move the conversion point closer to demand. LOTTE Fine Chemical would supply green ammonia through its procurement channels and domestic infrastructure, while Amogy would use ammonia cracking technology to produce hydrogen at the refueling site. The arrangement could reduce the need to transport hydrogen itself, but the economics will depend on the cost and carbon intensity of imported ammonia, the efficiency of cracking and purification, electricity requirements and the utilization rate of the resulting infrastructure.
Amogy says its technology cracks ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen before feeding the resulting hydrogen into either fuel cells or hydrogen engines. The company reports reforming efficiency improvements of up to 35%, although such figures are technology specific and should not be treated as equivalent to a complete system level efficiency for a commercial hydrogen station.
The distinction is important because Korea’s clean hydrogen market is being built around carbon intensity as well as fuel type. Under the national clean hydrogen certification system, hydrogen supplied to power generation must meet an emissions threshold of no more than 4 kilograms of CO2 equivalent per kilogram of hydrogen on a well to gate basis, with four certification grades below that threshold.
For ammonia to qualify as part of that clean energy pathway, therefore, its upstream production and transport emissions become material. Calling an ammonia based system clean solely because the point of use produces no direct carbon emissions would overlook the emissions embedded in ammonia production, shipping, storage and conversion.
The second application under the MOU is distributed power. LOTTE Fine Chemical would provide ammonia supply, storage and logistics, while Amogy would deploy modular generation systems based on fuel cells or internal combustion engines. The companies are targeting commercial and community scale applications rather than announcing a utility scale power project.
This segment aligns with a broader Korean policy shift toward clean hydrogen in electricity generation. The country’s first clean hydrogen power bidding market began in 2024, with eligible hydrogen required to meet the national emissions criteria. A subsequent auction was designed around long term contracts, including 3 TWh of low carbon hydrogen and 1.3 TWh of hydrogen based power.
Yet the policy framework also highlights the central challenge for ammonia based power: cost. The International Energy Agency has noted that Korea is using demand side policies to establish an initial clean hydrogen market, while recommending greater emphasis on cost effectiveness and applications where hydrogen offers meaningful emissions reduction potential.
The marine segment provides the most direct connection to infrastructure LOTTE Fine Chemical has already demonstrated. Under the MOU, the companies will explore supplying ammonia to vessels equipped with Amogy’s ammonia to power technology, using LOTTE Fine Chemical’s Ulsan terminal and bunkering capabilities.
For shipping, however, fuel supply is only one part of commercialization. Ammonia toxicity, onboard fuel handling, engine or cracking system performance, safety requirements and the availability of vessels capable of using ammonia all affect the economics of the market. The April Ulsan operation demonstrated that commercial bunkering infrastructure can be deployed, but it does not by itself establish broad commercial demand.
That distinction is also relevant to South Korea’s wider hydrogen strategy. The IEA has identified infrastructure development, including hydrogen pipelines and import terminals, as a critical requirement for connecting future supply with demand. Korea is also developing hydrogen hubs intended to integrate storage, infrastructure and power applications.
The Amogy and LOTTE Fine Chemical agreement therefore addresses a specific gap in the emerging market: how imported clean molecules can be converted into usable energy close to end users.
