Site items in: Ammonia Engine

Dutch Company Breaks New Ground in Ammonia Combustion
Article

Earlier this year the Dutch company Duiker Combustion Engineers shared a company paper with Ammonia Energy that targets ammonia energy as an application for the company’s proprietary stoichiometry-controlled oxidation (SCO) technology.  The technology’s original commercial deployment in petroleum refining occurred in 2010, and now the company sees potentially broad applications for it as a sustainable energy expedient in the industrial and electricity sectors.

MAN Energy Solutions: an ammonia engine for the maritime sector
Article

In June 2018, MAN Diesel & Turbo rebranded itself MAN Energy Solutions, reflecting the maritime engine market leader's "strategic and technological transformation" towards sustainability. The company was "taking a stand for the Paris Climate Agreement and the global pursuit of a carbon-neutral economy." According to Uwe Lauber, Chairman of the Board, "our activities have a significant impact on the global economy. In shipping, for example, we move more than half of the global stream of goods ... [and] the path to decarbonising the maritime economy starts with fuel decarbonisation, especially in container shipping." This week, the company took a significant step towards realizing its vision, disclosing that it is "pressing ahead with developing ... an ammonia-fuelled engine." This builds on the technology development pathway that MAN ES presented at the NH3 Energy+ Topical Conference at Pittsburgh in October 2018. The budget and timeline are set: the €5 million (USD$5.7 million) project will last two to three years and, if the shipowners decide to deploy the finished product, "the first ammonia engine could then be in operation by early 2022."

Exploring ammonia's potential as a marine fuel
Presentation

International shipping is responsible for approximately 90% of the world trade. Looking to the relative emissions, in gram CO2 per ton km, maritime transport score significantly better compared to others like rail, road and airfreight. However, since most of the transport is done by ships the absolute contribution of greenhouse gases (GHG) by the maritime industry is clearly visible. Of all the global emissions the maritime industry is responsible for 3% CO2, 13% SOx, and 15% NOx. To reduce SOx and NOx several regulations are either upcoming or already in play. Current regulations require the sulphur emissions to be less…

Improved Method of Using Hydrogen and Ammonia Fuels for an Internal Combustion Engine
Presentation

A tractor mounted internal combustion engine is fueled by Hydrogen or a combination of Hydrogen and Ammonia. Developments of an improved method of fuel injection and ignition control. Hydrogen is port injected in the intake manifold, and liquid ammonia is injected in the throttle body. A dual fuel ECU, Engine Control Unit, controls the fuel mixtures and the firing of multiple coils for ignition. The paper will address significant engine performance improvements and the resulting fuel consumption and engine emissions levels.

Ship Operation Using LPG and Ammonia As Fuel on MAN B&W Dual Fuel ME-LGIP Engines
Presentation

LPG has been used as fuel in the car industry for many years and now, with Exmar and Statoil’s orders for ocean-going ships fitted with the dual fuel ME-LGIP engine, LPG will be used on marine engines as well. The new engine series is currently being developed to match all types of bigger merchant ships. This order was made in consequence of the new 2020 0.5% sulphur fuel cap, but this step forward has not stopped the discussion and interest in lowering CO2, NOx, SOx and particulate emissions even further. On the contrary, it has actually been further fuelled by…

Ammonia for Power: a literature review
Article

"Ammonia for Power" is an open-access literature review that includes over 300 citations for recent and ongoing research in the use of ammonia in engines, fuel cells, and turbines, as well as providing references to decades of historical case studies and publications. The review, written by a consortium of ammonia energy experts from the University of Cardiff, University of Oxford, the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council, and Tsinghua University in China, can be found in the November 2018 edition of Progress in Energy and Combustion Science.

DNV GL predicts carbon-neutral fuels, including ammonia, to surpass oil for shipping by 2050
Article

This week, DNV GL published its annual Energy Transition Outlook, providing a long-term forecast for global energy production and consumption, and including a dedicated report describing its Maritime Forecast to 2050. This is the first forecast from a major classification society explicitly to evaluate ammonia as a maritime fuel. By 2050, DNV GL predicts that 39% of the global shipping energy mix will consist of "carbon-neutral fuels," a category that include ammonia, hydrogen, biofuels, and other fuels produced from electricity. By 2050, these fuels will therefore have gained greater market share than oil, LNG, and battery-electric. If ammonia succeeds as the carbon-neutral fuel of choice in the shipping sector, this new demand will be roughly equivalent to 200 million tons of ammonia per year, more than today's total global production.

Pilot project: an ammonia tanker fueled by its own cargo
Article

Last month, an important new consortium in the Netherlands announced its intention to research and demonstrate "the technical feasibility and cost effectiveness of an ammonia tanker fuelled by its own cargo." This two-year project will begin with theoretical and laboratory studies, and it will conclude with a pilot-scale demonstration of zero-emission marine propulsion using ammonia fuel in either an internal combustion engine or a fuel cell.

A new strategy for internal combustion of ammonia
Article

Of all the devices that can convert the chemical energy in ammonia to electricity, gas turbines and fuel cells appear to be receiving the lion’s share of development effort, outstripping that devoted to ammonia-fueled internal combustion engines (A-ICEs).  An Ammonia Energy review last year found a number of organizations with histories of work on A-ICE technology, but reports of progress have not been forthcoming.  It was good news, therefore, when a representative of a newly engaged group appeared at the NH3 Energy+ Topical Conference earlier this month and delivered a talk on an innovative A-ICE “combustion strategy.”  Donggeun Lee from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Seoul National University (SNU) delivered the paper, entitled “Development of new combustion strategy for internal combustion engine fueled by pure ammonia,” on behalf of his co-authors, Hyungeun Min, Hyunho Park, and Han Ho Song.