MAN Energy Solutions will start the first tests of ammonia as fuel at its research center in Copenhagen in 2021, according to a presentation from the company.
As such, one of the key elements to make ammonia a new fuel in shipping is launched. And if things go as planned for the Danish-German engine manufacturer, the ammonia engine will go on the market in 2024.
At any rate, the presentation informs that the company expects to deliver the first ammonia engine to a shipyard four years from now.
The other day, a series of key companies with interests in the new fuel published a comprehensive report about how ammonia could realistically be the fuel at least one third of the global fleet will use.
The report lists several of the preconditions needed for the CO2-free fuel to be able to replace heavy fuel, which is currently the preferred propulsion source, but which will need to be phased out if shipping is to realize its climate ambitions.
An engine that runs on ammonia is just one precondition. The availability of ammonia is another.
The current annual production of ammonia totals 180 million tons. For 30 percent of the sector’s annual fuel consumption to be covered, an additional 150 million tons will need to be produced annually.
Wärtsilä also testing ammonia
The starting point for availability is good, concludes the report.
“Today the ammonia can count on a huge amount of facilities in the world: 120 ports are already dealing with the import and the export of the product, and sometimes can count on their own storage facilities. These infrastructures represent an excellent starting point for securing the availability of the ammonia fuel for those ships adopting it as forerunners,” writes the report.
The report was commissioned by a series of shipping and energy majors, including Hafnia, Alfa Laval, Vestas, Siemens Gamesa and Haldor Topsøe.
Wärtsilä has also entered the race with customers Knutsen OAS Shipping and Repsol, to test ammonia as fuel on a four stroke engine, and the company expects to make its first tests in early 2021.
The tests will be conducted at facilities in Norway owned by Sustainable Energy Catapult Centre.
English Edit: Daniel Logan Berg-Munch
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