World’s First Ammonia-Fueled Ship Hits a Snag

IEEE Spectrum beforehand reported on ammonia as a potential replacement for petroleum fuels within the delivery business in 2021, at which period key stakeholders—together with Norwegian power giant Equinor, know-how supplier Wärtsilä, and delivery firm Eidesvik Offshore—anticipated the Viking Power to set sail in 2024. Nonetheless, progress has slowed.

Trade consultants attribute the delay to the complicated infrastructure required to deal with ammonia safely. “Ammonia is poisonous, explosive, and corrosive. We should use particular piping, storage tanks, and vehicles outfitted with supplies engineered to be each leakproof and proof against ammonia’s corrosive properties,” says John Prousalidis, a professor of marine engineering on the National Technical University of Athens.

A spokesperson for Wärtsilä instructed IEEE Spectrum that the delay has not been associated to efficiency or questions of safety, however to “ the challenges of being on the forefront of maritime decarbonization.” The spokesperson explains that the mission “was initially the demonstrator within the EU-funded ShipFC Clear Hydrogen Partnership program, which aimed to put in a 2-megawatt ammonia-powered gasoline cell onboard.” However as a result of logistics for the manufacturing of strong oxide fuel cells for this software didn’t mature as rapidly as anticipated, the EU organizers put “a short lived pause” on the retrofit. The 2024 deadline was now not possible, however the partnership restarted the mission with a specifically made gas turbine designed to run on ammonia.

When working with first-of-their-kind applied sciences, timelines can shift — however the ambition stays the identical: to make ammonia a viable zero-carbon gasoline for the maritime business,” says the Wärtsilä spokesperson.

Being first comes with a set of challenges that have to be overcome. One of many largest environmental considerations with ammonia-powered ships is the potential launch of nitrogen oxides. “As an alternative of CO₂, which contributes to global warming, we might find yourself with nitrogen oxides, that are deadly to breathe,” says Prousalidis. “To keep away from merely swapping one pollutant for one more, ammonia propulsion techniques should embrace emissions-control applied sciences to stop dangerous nitrogen oxides from coming into the environment,” he provides.

A promising different to combustion engines is ammonia-powered gasoline cells just like the one initially slated to energy the Viking Power. Gasoline cells generate electrical energy with out producing nitrogen oxide emissions. By avoiding combustion fully, these gasoline cells enable ammonia’s nitrogen content material to stay in its inert type, eliminating a key well being danger.

Ammonia Gasoline Delays for Viking Power

Regardless of the challenges, consultants imagine ammonia might change into a mainstream maritime gasoline—however not in a single day. “Twenty or thirty years in the past, the delivery business made a significant shift to natural gas, believing it was the gasoline of the longer term. Now, we all know it wasn’t the precise step,” says Prousalidis.

Trying again at previous gasoline transitions, he famous that every shift—from steam to grease, after which to pure fuel—took round 20 years to realize full adoption. He expects an analogous timeline for the adoption of ammonia or hydrogen. “We must be affected person whereas persisting in our efforts and never getting discouraged by early challenges.”

That perspective aligns with what Equinor’s vp of renewable and low-carbon know-how, Henriette Undrum, instructed IEEE Spectrum in 2021 when she urged the general public to be affected person: “We’re not simply fixing one small downside for one ship. It’s a part of the larger image. It will likely be a place to begin to construct up the marketplace for zero-carbon fuels.”

Eidesvik’s ammonia-powered Viking Power is now slated to ship out in 2026.Eidesvik

As ammonia and hydrogen acquire traction as maritime fuels, seaports might play a pivotal function in in fixing ammonia’s chicken-and-egg downside. Power corporations are cautious of investing in different gasoline infrastructure when there aren’t any ships that run on the brand new gasoline, and shipbuilders are need to keep away from shelling out a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} to construct vessels for which there isn’t any regular gasoline provide.

“Seaports are already present process an power transformation,” says Prousalidis. “It might make sense for them to function as power hubs—producing, storing, and buying and selling alternative fuels for gasoline cells and different power-generation units.” By doing so, he says, ports might flip a revenue whereas additionally breaking the stalemate and contributing to world decarbonization efforts.

Though considerations about nitrogen oxide emissions stay, corporations together with the partnership that’s retrofitting the Viking Powerare reportedly designing post-combustion techniques, analogous to the catalytic converters in vehicle exhaust techniques, to filter out dangerous byproducts. A way known as selective catalytic discount converts nitrogen oxides into nitrogen and water. Ammonia slip catalysts seize unburned ammonia and break it down into the identical two inert merchandise.