Five ammonia vessel updates this week:
1. An ammonia/liquefied CO2 carrier concept design from Mitsui O.S.K. Lines & Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
2. Approval in Principle for an ammonia-fueled car carrier designed by China State Shipbuilding.
3. Approval in Principle for the MS Green Ammonia.
4. An MoU between three members of the Castor Initiative to design & construct two Very Large Crude Carriers.
5. A concept design for up to four types of ammonia-ready, LNG-fueled vessels (ARLFV) from NYK Line.
Following last month’s shipbuilding news from China, this week we explore three ammonia-related announcements from Norway-based players:
1. Breeze Ship Design’s ammonia-fueled oil tanker design, with a demonstration vessel to be eventually chartered to Equinor.
2. An order for six ammonia-ready, robotic offshore vessels from VARD.
3. And the P2XFloater, a new vessel concept from H2Carrier for the world’s first floating, industrial-scale ammonia production plant.
This week we explore a trio of announcements out of China:
1. The ammonia-ready vessel Kriti Future has been delivered to owners Avin International.
2. Höegh Autoliners has contracted China Merchants Heavy Industry to build at least four of their new ammonia-ready vessel design: the Aurora-class car carrier. The new builds will meet requirements for DNV GL's methanol and ammonia-ready notation guides.
3. And Swiss-based shipping giant MSC has placed an order for six ammonia-ready container ships from Dalian Shipbuilding in China. The vessels will be powered by WinGD dual-fuel engines, for which retrofits will be available by 2024/5 to run on methanol and ammonia.
This week we explore four updates in ammonia combustion R&D:
1. A team from the University of Cambridge has shown merchant vessels are the strongest candidates for conversion to run on ammonia powertrains, with cargo capacity losses of 4-9% able to be feasibly offset by operators.
2. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have successfully tested a thermochemical recuperation (TCR) reactor to improve the efficiency of a dual-fuel, diesel-ammonia compression ignition engine by minimising ammonia slip.
3. A global team led by Cardiff University researchers has revealed some of the inner workings of ammonia combustion in gas turbine flames.
4. A global team has produced a cradle-to-gate environmental assessment for ammonia production and ammonia-based electricity generation, suggesting that renewable and nuclear ammonia have a significant role to play in decarbonising the power sector.
