Norway’s Green Shipping Program is undertaking a project designed to expand on the current efforts in the shipping industry researching ammonia-fueled engines and safety and class rules to develop an ocean-going ammonia-fueled tanker, says an article published in Maritime Executive.
Ammonia pilot
The public-private initiative supported by the Norwegian government wants to draw on experience from the short sea shipping segment with alternative fuels to start an ammonia pilot intended for global shipping.
Equinor is the pilot owner and will lead the work involving partners including DNV, Yara, Grieg, and Altera Infrastructure. Færder Tankers is a contributor to the pilot project.
Designs for the vessel will be developed by Norway’s Breeze Ship Design. They will be responsible for ship integration of the ammonia fuel and bunkering systems, as well as machinery and propulsion system.
The goal is to develop a 110,000 dwt Aframax tanker that will be ammonia-powered. Among the main objectives of the pilot project are investigating the technical and economic applicability of ammonia engines, fuel and bunkering systems using the generic tanker design developed by Breeze.
MS green ammonia
They will seek to understand the operational safety aspects and competence requirements as well as solve security challenges in the design.
They expect to identify barriers to the adoption of ammonia as a maritime fuel while completing designs for a tanker powered by ammonia that can be chartered and operated by Equinor as a demonstration of the technology.
In a separate project in Norway, Grieg Edge and Wärtsilä are also collaborating to develop a groundbreaking new tanker vessel, the MS Green Ammonia.
The vessel, which will both transport and run on green ammonia, is expected to be in operation as early as 2024. partners plan is to have M/S Green Ammonia distribute its cargo from a factory in Berlevåg in the far north of Norway to various locations and end-users along the Norwegian coast, including a power station in Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean. They plan to target current users of LNG as early adopters of ammonia.
Last week, Japan’s NYK, MTI Co., and Finland’s Elomatic said that they have completed the development of a concept design for an ammonia-fuel ready LNG-fueled vessel that can be converted from LNG to an ammonia-fueled vessel.
Panamax bulker
During the first phase of the project, they developed designs for a car carrier and a post-Panamax bulker seeking to develop the concept and determine issues that are not yet technically feasible.
They looked at the material needed for the tank, placement of additional tanks for ammonia, which has a larger volume than LNG, hull structure strength and stability due to the addition of tanks and a device to supply ammonia to the main engine.
Currently, they are working on designs for a Capesize bulk carrier and a very large crude oil carrier, which they expect to complete by mid-year and by the end of 2022 proceed with the actual design of an ammonia-ready vessel with a shipyard and marine manufacturers incorporating the concept design, including the optimal fuel-tank layout, ammonia-fuel supply device, and structural strength of the hull.
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Source: Maritime Executive
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