NYK has announced that the tugboat Sakigake has been completed, and will enter three months of commercial trials in Yokohama harbor and Tokyo Bay. Thanks to retrofits, Japan’s first LNG-fueled vessel has now become Japan’s first ammonia-fueled vessel.
An NYK-led consortium has been granted engine room safety accreditation by ClassNK for its ammonia-fueled, medium gas carrier design. The vessel is due to hit the water in 2026. Starting later this decade, NYK has also committed to transport renewable ammonia from Sembcorp’s under-development production project in India to Kyushu, Japan.
Moored in Yokohama Port, the A-Tug was refueled from a shoreside tanker truck with ammonia earlier this month. The ammonia for the demonstration was supplied by Resonac Corporation, and ammonia fuel is to be supplied by JERA once the vessel is delivered for commercial operations in the coming months.
JERA and IHI have successfully concluded a large-scale ammonia co-firing trial at the Hekinan power station. For two months, 20% fuel substitution in the 1 GW-sized Unit 4 was achieved, with stable operations throughout. JERA aims to have commercial ammonia co-firing operations up and running by March 2025.
Sojitz and Kyushu Electric will offtake the full volume of ammonia production from the first phase of Sembcorp’s under-development production project in India, with the intention to supply various industrial customers in the Kyushu region of Japan. In more term sheet news, Avaada will supply renewable ammonia to Mysore, a distributor of ammonia to Indian customers.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has published a regional strategy to decarbonise the power generation ecosystem in the Chugoku region, Japan. The strategy predicts the region will require more than 3 million tons of fuel ammonia by 2030, and highlights several ongoing industrial initiatives to demonstrate the use of ammonia fuel & establish local import infrastructure.
Miura Industries and Chubu Electric Power will jointly work together to develop an ammonia co-fired boiler. The boiler will run on a mixture of ammonia and coal-derived gas, with potential industrial applications in Japan.
