The university’s Integrated Cracking Burner (ICB) system converts a portion of ammonia into hydrogen using waste heat from combustion, feeding it back into the flame to enhance efficiency and stability without separate hydrogen storage or supply.

The project was designed with future support for off-grid industrial sites in mind, which together burn about 4.5 million tonnes of oil per year in the UK – equivalent to 14 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Cardiff University’s £3.4m ($4.4m) Amburn project, led by the School of Engineering and Net Zero Innovation Institute, is funded by the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and delivered in partnership with Flogas.

“The ICB system not only burns ammonia cleanly but also produces hydrogen to support ammonia combustion by cracking ammonia with waste heat from combustion, eliminating the challenges of hydrogen transport and storage,” explained Dr. Syed Mashruk, the university’s theme leader for Zero Carbon Fuels.

The research team first conducted tests at 300 kW using various ammonia–propane blends before scaling up.

The project will now move to Stage 2, targeting operation at 1 MW capacity.