Enaex, NYK to explore ammonia marine fuel supply in Chile
By on March 13, 2024
Click to learn more. The Global Journey, a Handymax bulk vessel in NYK Bulk & Project Carriers’ fleet. An agreement with Codelco will see a fleet of 10-15 ammonia-fueled Handymaxes built to service the cross-Pacific copper trade. Source: NYK Bulk.
Enaex and NYK Bulk & Project Carriers will explore the feasibility of supplying renewable ammonia fuel for a series of new Handymax bulk vessels. Enaex will produce renewable ammonia at its HyEx project in Mejillones, Chile, targeting a pilot-sized production facility with a capacity of 18,000 metric tons of ammonia per year by 2025. Scaling this project to a capacity of 700,000-plus metric tons per year, Enaex will meet its own ammonia needs (manufacture of mining blasting agents) and have enough product remaining for a supply of marine fuel. Enaex already owns ammonia terminal infrastructure in Mejillones, which at present is only used for imports.
NYK Bulk is planning to build a fleet of 10-15 ammonia-fueled, Handymax bulk vessels to transport copper concentrate from Mejillones. Chilean national copper company Codelco already has an MoU with NYK Bulk to develop the fleet, with ammonia fuel to power its supply of copper from Chile to key Asian markets. The first of these ships is expected to be delivered in 2027.
The first value of our company is to take care of life and, as part of that commitment, we are concerned to mitigate the impacts on climate change…Deepening on this path, we are now focused on collaborating in reducing emissions in the transport of raw materials.
According to the memorandum of understanding signed, Enaex will have to provide low-carbon ammonia for these vessels, and must also make available for its cargo the facilities of its terminal in Mejillones, which until now are only used for ammonia discharge. Our company already has experience in the transport and production of low carbon ammonia. On the one hand, in our Cachimayo plant in Peru, we are producing green ammonia and we have also imported blue ammonia from the United States.
Juan Andrés Errázuriz, CEO of Enaex in his organisation’s official press release (translated from Spanish by Google), 20 Feb 2024