New ammonia-powered vessels: Newcastlemax & Panamax class

Rio Tinto & AngloEastern

Rio Tinto and AngloEastern have announced they will develop Newcastlemax class, ammonia-powered bulk carriers. The dry cargo vessels will be the maximum size allowed to dock in the Port of Newcastle, Australia: an important coal & iron ore port in global maritime trade.

Click to read more about AngloEastern’s ammonia-powered designs (and other decarbonisation efforts) in their quarterly news magazine Leadership (Issue 23, Sept 2021). Source: AngloEastern.

Mining giant Rio Tinto will work with K-Line, NS United, Nihon Shipyard and Itochu on a dual-fuel, ammonia-powered bulk carrier. Details are limited, but the announcement represents one of Rio Tinto’s first forays into the ammonia energy space.

And AngloEastern – one of the world’s largest ship management organisations – has received AiP from the American Bureau of Shipping for its new design: a dual-fuel, 210,000m3 dry bulk carrier. The design features two deck-mounted, IMO Class C fuel tanks, and will be able to be applied to retrofits of existing vessels and newbuilds. Both AngloEastern and Rio Tinto are members of an Itochu-led maritime fuel study investigating the use of ammonia.

Planning and Design Center for Greener Ships (GSC)

Launched in December 2020, the GSC is a collaboration between Japan’s biggest shipbuilders and class societies, with the aim of accelerating R&D into “environmentally harmonious” ship designs. This week the GSC’s first-ever ammonia-powered design – a Panamax-class bulk carrier – received approval from ClassNK. The design will be used by GSC’s individual members to inform their own development of ammonia-powered carriers.

China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC)

Via its subsidiaries Jiangnan Shipbuilding and the China Shipbuilding Trading Corporation, CSSC will develop two 93,000 m3 ammonia-powered ammonia carrier vessels, with Bureau Veritas granting AiP for the vessel design. Indications are the vessels will be cargo-and-fuel-flexible. Similar to the Newcastlemax and Panamax-class announcements this week, the vessel design features two large, on-deck fuel tanks.

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Mike Henderson

Hi, I received this response from Mainspring Energy, which makes medium power electric power generators (10kW+) using a low temperature chemical reaction which does not appear to produce NOx compounds when using anhydrous ammonia. You might want to post an article about these products which are less expensive than fuel cells, yet cleaner and more efficient than conventional internal combustion engines. Quoted Email: Eric Weisz <[email protected]> Thu, Jan 27, 4:13 PM (1 day ago) to me Hi Michael Thanks so much for reaching out. Yes, our units will be able to run directly on anhydrous ammonia. End Quote Thank you for… Read more »