Ammonia Could Be Shipping’s Next-Gen Fuel of the Future
According to Gibson, “ammonia is attracting interest as a potential carbon-free fuel for shipping due to its high liquefaction temperature and energy density compared to hydrogen. There is also a wellestablished infrastructure system for handling ammonia, although currently no bunkering facilities. Plus it is easier to store and transport than hydrogen. In addition, ammonia is a well traded chemical and there is already significant industry expertise when it comes to handling it on-board as a cargo as opposed to hydrogen. The main barrier to it being used as a fuel for shipping is that it is acutely toxic. On a positive note, ammonia can be used in a fuel cell as well as a conventional engine. But further technological advances are needed for ammonia fuel cells to see lower costs and become a viable alternative technology. The current efficiency of the ammonia conversion process is currently around 50%, which would need to be improved to help to reduce production costs. Also,the competitiveness of hydrogenbased fuels (like ammonia) will also depend on adoption of policy by either penalising the use of fossil fuels, such as CO2 pricing, or incentivising the use of clean fuels, such as clean fuel standards that are currently being considered at the IMO”.
The shipbroker added that “it is therefore likely that Ammonia will be one of the future fuels developed to replace current fossil fuels. There has already been some progress within the sector as earlier this year NYK announced that they would be looking into ammonia as a marine fuel. Wartsila is working on testing a four-stroke engine running on ammonia in conjunction with Knutsen Shipping and Repsol. These might be small steps, but the potential for ammonia as a bunker fuel is significant”, Gibson concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide