Meet the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation and DNV, two partners in an ammonia bunkering study that will pave the way forward for the deployment of ammonia bunker fuel in Singapore.
Five ammonia vessel updates this week:
1. An ammonia/liquefied CO2 carrier concept design from Mitsui O.S.K. Lines & Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
2. Approval in Principle for an ammonia-fueled car carrier designed by China State Shipbuilding.
3. Approval in Principle for the MS Green Ammonia.
4. An MoU between three members of the Castor Initiative to design & construct two Very Large Crude Carriers.
5. A concept design for up to four types of ammonia-ready, LNG-fueled vessels (ARLFV) from NYK Line.
Fortescue Future Industries has been hitting the Ammonia Energy headlines of late. All of these various announcements point towards a singular target, announced in June by Fortescue Chairman Andrew Forrest: the supply of 15 million tonnes green hydrogen to global markets by 2030. Taken on their own these are significant steps, but COP26 was also the stage for a number of other significant ammonia and hydrogen-related announcements by FFI. Over the last fortnight we've seen the launch of green ammonia production projects in Papua New Guinea, Jordan & Argentina, buyers announced for a full 10% of FFI's global green hydrogen production, a partnership to decarbonise aviation and more developments in the electrolyser space.
Four ammonia-powered ships were announced this week, with a mixture of retrofits and newbuilds. Fortescue Future Industries will convert the MMA Leveque to run on near 100% ammonia fuel within 12 months. Grieg Maritime and Wartsila's MS Green Ammonia vessel has a designer, with LMG Marin engaged to complete a concept by mid next year. And Eidesvik, Aker BP and Alma (formerly Prototech AS) have joined forces to deploy the ammonia-fed fuel cell technology being developed for the Viking Energy project.
Eidesvik Offshore and Wärtsilä will cooperate in the world's first ammonia conversion project, with an existing offshore supply vessel (OSV) to be retrofitted with an ammonia-fueled combustion engine, fuel supply and safety system. The project has a completion date of late 2023. In the engine space, MAN ES has signed a new agreement with Mitsui E&S and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) to have purchase contracts for its low-speed, ammonia-fueled main vessel engine finalised in 2023.
In December last year DEME Concessions and OQ announced their new HYPORT® Duqm green ammonia project. The 250 - 500 MW facility (in the first instance) will harness wind and solar energy to produce green ammonia, which could then be easily exported from the adjacent port. This week DEME and OQ took another step by signing a key cooperation agreement with Uniper. The global energy giant will provide engineering services and negotiate an exclusive off-take agreement of green ammonia.
This week: 45 GW mega-project in Kazakhstan, world-first industrial "dynamic" green ammonia plant, Japan's Idemitsu to use Tokuyama facility for ammonia imports, co-combustion test, more successful funding rounds, green ammonia in Ireland, South Africa's potential to fuel green shipping: new report, Obsky LNG becomes Obsky hydrogen/ammonia and more developments in the Middle East.
News this week: future green bunker fuel hub planned for Bornholm, more Haldor Topsoe news, Australia partners up, 23 key players kick-off ammonia maritime fuel study, $100 billion hydro-hydrogen and ammonia in the DR Congo, Egypt planning $4 billion green hydrogen project, AP Ventures leads investment in Amogy, full steam ahead for MS Green Ammonia, new blue ammonia plant in Canada and new engineering contracts signed for key blue ammonia projects.
Welcome to the Ammonia Wrap: a summary of all the latest announcements, news items and publications about ammonia energy. This week: two new large-scale ammonia projects in the UAE, RWE, BASF combine for 2 GW "Offshore-to-X" project, green ammonia exports from Tasmania, coal co-combustion trials in Japan, Japanese shipping industry chases decarbonisation, South Korean companies join together in local green ammonia consortium, new funding for ammonia-from-wastewater research and Horisont Energi and Equinor join forces for the Polaris project.
Last week we presented the second episode in our monthly webinar series: Ammonia Energy Live. Every month we’ll explore the wonderful world of ammonia energy and the role it will play in global decarbonisation - with an Australian twist. This episode we welcomed Sammy Van Den Broeck, VP Project & Portfolio at Yara Clean Ammonia. Sammy was invited to give his thoughts on the key challenges and opportunities in the global ammonia transition, and explain to us why Australia is so important to Yara's future clean ammonia plans. Interviewing Sammy were Jacinta Bakker (Research Fellow in the MacFarlane Laboratory at Monash University) and Allison Gwilt (Senior Project Engineer, Future Fuels at Origin Energy).