Keppel Infrastructure and ExxonMobil Asia Pacific have signed an agreement to develop access to low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia for scalable commercial and industrial applications in Singapore, said Reuters.

Keppel Infrastructure (KI) is the infrastructure arm of Singapore-based global asset manager and operator Keppel Corp. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two companies follows the Singapore government’s launch of its national hydrogen strategy in October last year, which expects hydrogen to meet up to half of Singapore’s power needs by 2050.

"As part of this hydrogen strategy, the Energy Market Authority and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore issued an expression of interest in December for proposals to build, own and operate low- or zero-carbon power generation and bunkering facilities on Jurong Island," KI said in a statement.

In addition to being a hydrogen carrier and storage medium, ammonia can be used directly as a carbon-free fuel or broken down into carbon-free hydrogen for use in power generation, as well as feedstock for refinery and petrochemical operations.

Currently, natural gas meets most of Singapore’s power generation demand.