The Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore and the country’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) have jointly launched an EOI process to build, own and operate low or zero-carbon ammonia power generation and bunkering projects on Jurong Island. A project lifetime of 25 years is stipulated, with operations to begin in 2027 or before.
In this week’s maritime ammonia news:
COP27 saw an exciting number of green shipping corridor announcements. But the question remains: how do we actually build them? Earlier this year, the Maersk McKinney Møller Centre for Zero Carbon Shipping launched a Feasibility Phase Blueprint, setting out some key assessment criteria to consider. At the recent annual AEA conference in Phoenix, we took a group of sixty participants through the criteria, asking how and where the ammonia sector should engage.
Ricardo, Lloyd’s Register and the Environmental Defense Fund have used extensive modeling to assess the environmental impacts of large-scale ammonia spills in a variety of maritime scenarios. The study concludes that large-scale spills will have a high impact on certain environmental settings, and in particular fish species. The report also indicates that ammonia is less likely to spread & persist in the environment compared to a spill of conventional maritime fuel, and in some cases will pose less of a threat to certain species. More considerations need to be worked through, including health risks to a ship’s crew.
The US and Norway launched the Green Shipping Challenge in Sharm el-Sheikh this month. The Challenge encompasses more than forty different announcements & initiatives, including ammonia fuel production in Namibia, ammonia-powered cargo shipping in Finland, ammonia-powered pilot vessels in Norway's Green Shipping Programme, and a host of new green corridor projects. A trio of new reports have also provided an assessment of progress to date in green corridor development, and suggested key next steps.
Amon Maritime has launched a new subsidiary - Amon Offshore - which will build, own and operate a fleet of ammonia-powered platform supply vessels, to operate off Norway’s coast. The new PSV design has already received AiP for ammonia notation from DNV, and preliminary flag approval from Norwegian Maritime Authorities. We also explore two more AiP for ammonia-powered vessels in China: a 16,000 TEU container ship and a 50,000 tonne, mid-range oil/chemical tanker.
Amogy’s ammonia-to-power system will be retrofitted onto a tank barge operated by Southern Devall, a Louisiana-based organisation specialising in bulk chemical and fertiliser transport throughout the Mississippi River and Gulf Intracoastal Waterway System. The retrofit is due to be complete in late 2023, and following successful trials more vessels in Southern Devall’s fleet will be retrofitted to run on ammonia fuel.
Singapore’s government has launched an official hydrogen strategy for the island nation. Ammonia plays a key role in the maritime sector’s multi-fuel transition, with other direct uses emerging in Singapore’s energy future: fertiliser, industrial feedstock and power generation.
The pair will explore a new, 250,000-tonnes-per-year renewable ammonia production facility in India, powered by 1.3 GW of solar, wind and pumped hydro generating capacity. The ammonia will be used for “demand for low carbon energy” in India and Singapore, and also as bunker fuel. In related news, Indian energy major Jakson Green has announced it will build a $2.8 billion, 365,000 tonnes per year renewable ammonia production plant in Kota, northern India.
In our latest episode of Maritime Ammonia Insights, we delved into an exciting new project for maritime ammonia: the Bornholm Bunkering Hub. Maja Bendtsen (Port of Roenne), Jan Gramkov (Rambøll) and Nicklas Koch (DBI) presented the feasibility, safety management & public perception work currently in progress, as well as the steps still required to formalise a plan forward for the hub by 2025. Early & repeated engagement with the local community, rigorous & standardised assessment of potential risks and utilising learnings from other industries were all emphasized by the speakers as key to realising the project.