- Ocean-going ships could be powered by ammonia within the decade as the shipping industry takes action to curb carbon emissions.
- The shipping industry hopes ammonia will help it tackle climate change, because it burns without CO2 emissions.
- The near ubiquitous use of ammonia for agriculture has conveniently generated a global network of ports where the chemical is traded or stored.
- Ammonia is expected to match the price of other alternative fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas, liquefied natural gas or methanol.
- Environmentalists want to reduce the amount of shipping overall, and impose slower cruising speeds to save fuel.
Within the decade ocean- going ships could be powered by ammonia, as the shipping industry acts to curb carbon emissions, writes BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin.
No Carbon emissions
The chemical – the key ingredient of fertilisers – can be burned in ships’ engines in place of polluting diesel.
The industry hopes ammonia will help it tackle climate change, because it burns without CO2 emissions.
However, this challenge is going to be huge because shipping produces around 2% of global emissions.
Ammonia as fuel
Making ammonia is also a major source of carbon. A report by the Royal Society says, “Ammonia production currently creates 1.8% of global CO2 emissions – the most of any chemical industry.”
New reports however, suggest that new technology can create zero carbon ammonia.
- One way is by trapping the CO2 emissions created when ammonia is produced and burying the CO2 in underground rocks.
- Another way of making so-called “green” ammonia is to use renewable energy which doesn’t create any CO2.
The Royal Society report says farmers need to use ammonia much more carefully. But it notes that the near ubiquitous use of ammonia for agriculture has conveniently generated a global network of ports where the chemical is traded or stored.
That means the infrastructure for storing chilled ammonia as a shipping fuel already exists. In the USA, for instance, one existing ammonia pipeline runs for 2,000 miles.
Ammonia powered engines
The engine designer Man Energy Solutions is making a two-stroke ammonia-powered engine it hopes will be ready by 2024.
The firm’s spokesman, Peter Kirkeby, told the BBC: “We see a very big interest from the market in ammonia as a fuel – even though there are challenges.”
“We expect the first ships fuelled with ammonia will be existing tankers that are already transporting ammonia for fertiliser. They know how to handle it,” he added.
He said he expected ammonia to match the price of other alternative fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas, liquefied natural gas or methanol.
However, the report shows how inefficient these fuels are compared with energy-dense diesel.
The Royal Society’s lead author, Prof Bill David, told the BBC: “Ammonia is the only zero-carbon fuel that will get you across the oceans.” But he also warned, “In terms of emissions from industrial processes, ammonia comes only after cement and steel, so we need to decarbonise the production of ammonia.”
Is absolute zero possible?
A recent academic report called Absolute Zero was sceptical as to whether the ammonia industry could expand fast enough to power ships, while decarbonising at the same time.
It said the implementation at scale of ammonia from renewables would be an additional burden to the decarbonised power grid.
Prof David disagrees. He says: “Ammonia is the only way to store zero-carbon fuel from renewables for days, months and years.”
Environmentalists have consistently complained the industry is not playing its part in reducing emissions. In the short term they want to reduce the amount of shipping overall, and impose slower cruising speeds to save fuel.
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Source: BBC
