Wärtsilä’s 4-stroke ammonia engine is now commercially available. Meanwhile, WinGD and CMB.TECH’s plan for newbuild vessels based on WinGD’s 72-bore ammonia engine design has been underwritten in partnership with China State Shipbuilding Corporation.
For our final episode of Maritime Ammonia Insights, we take stock of the progress of marine ammonia fuel to date, and ask what comes next. Meet Fürstenberg Maritime Advisory to learn about upcoming key decision points at the IMO, communications strategies for marine ammonia, current safety gaps, and priorities for 2024 as we work towards the first demonstrations of marine ammonia fuel.
For our final episode of Maritime Ammonia Insights, we asked our resident experts Sofia and Conor Fürstenberg Stott to provide their insights on the pathway forward for marine ammonia fuel. Discussion topics included challenges for overlaying alternative fuels onto the existing bunker industry, the importance of seafarers to the transition, and why we need to move beyond talking about competition between alternative fuel candidates.
A series of flagship hydrogen initiatives were launched at COP28 last month. The initiatives are headlined by a 37-country joint declaration on mutual recognition of certification schemes, a response to sustained calls for increased global regulatory consistency. Additionally, the new ISO methodology for calculating hydrogen emissions was unveiled, paving the way for harmonisation.
Our recent conference in Atlanta, USA marked an incredible 20 year journey for the AEA. From humble beginnings, the Association is now in a position to have a critical impact on the growth of the clean ammonia industry, with certification, safety and increased collaboration between members all on the near-term agenda.
Decarbonization of existing steam methane reforming-based ammonia plants is possible, and changes in gas and heat flows can be recovered via alternative technologies. Recap our workshop in Atlanta, where we discussed the use of upstream methane monitoring equipment, electrolysers, carbon capture, hydrogen burners, energy storage and electric heating to achieve decarbonization of conventional ammonia plants.
In this session at our 2023 annual conference, panelists explored the challenges and opportunities for designing certification schemes for different markets. Moderated by Madhav Acharya, the discussion featured Emily Wolf from Ambient Fuel, Claire Behar from Hy Stor Energy, Domagoj Baresic from the UCL Energy Institute and Patrick Hastwell from KBR.
Compliance with EU standards offers flexibility for producers and will facilitate the immediate scale-up of export markets, but progress towards an umbrella-style certification scheme remains in focus for the AEA. Broad-based certification schemes will help create new voluntary demand markets and avoid a sector-by-sector approach to developing certification.