Lloyd’s Register’s Maritime Decarbonisation Hub and the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, along with A.P. Moller-Maersk, MAN Energy Solutions, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, NYK Line and Total, have formed a new project aimed at developing guidance on the safe use of ammonia as bunker fuel, reads the LR website.
Zero-carbon solution
Explaining the decision to develop the guidance, Lloyd’s Register said that ammonia is ‘heavily debated’ as a suitable long-term, zero-carbon solution for the maritime sector, and highlighted the ‘extreme toxicity’ of the fuel. Accordingly, the class society said it is ‘critical to address the safety issues’ to mitigate risks to people, assets and the environment.
The overarching purpose of the project is to understand and guide the safe use of ammonia as a fuel on board ships.
Part of this will include developing a detailed understanding of risk and safety concerns, which will be assessed through a quantitative risk assessment methodology in phase one of the project. This will ultimately lead to the development of best practices for safeguards in design and arrangements when using ammonia as a shipping fuel, says Lloyd’s Register.
Assessing vessels using ammonia
The project will also seek to determine the risk of fatality from unintended releases of ammonia, as well as determine the risk contribution of key equipment and spaces dedicated to ammonia storage. To illustrate the potential for risk mitigation measures, the project partners will assess alternative vessel designs, optimised to be fuelled by ammonia.
Funded by the participating partners, the project will be managed by the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping and is expected to run throughout 2021.
‘In the eagerness to decarbonise the shipping sector, proper risk management is critical and safety must not become an afterthought,’ said Winter Graugaard, Head of Onboard Vessel Solutions, the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping.
He further said, ‘This project will provide matured understanding of safety risk enabling industry guidance towards future safeguard design and adequate operational guidelines. Enabling safe and adequate deployment of ammonia as marine fuel.’
Carbon-free Shipping
Lloyd’s Register Decarbonisation Programme Manager, Charles Haskell, added: ’Shipping needs collaboration if the industry is to successfully meet the IMO 2050 targets, and this collaboration between the LR Maritime Decarbonisation Hub and the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping is a significant milestone in this journey.’
‘We look forward to working with the project partners, who each represent different areas of the supply chain, in developing guidance, risk mitigation measures and best practice on using ammonia so that we can support the safe uptake of the fuel,’ he concluded.
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Source: Lloyd’s Register
