Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has revealed plans to explore the use of ammonia as fuel for its newbuild containership fleet.
According to gCaptain, the company has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with classification society Lloyd’s Register (LR), Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute (SDARI), and MAN Energy Solutions (MAN-ES) to design an ammonia dual-fuel system for an MSC containership.
In terms of the collaboration, SDARI will be responsible for preparing the specification and design documentation for the ammonia dual-fuel variant, while LR will ensure that the design adheres to safety standards and regulations concerning the usage of ammonia as a marine fuel. MAN-ES will provide data for the engine design, as well as the ammonia fuel supply and emission abatement systems.
Recent analysis of the required land storage and distribution, onboard storage, and conversion to energy – in either an internal combustion engine or in a fuel cell – have revealed no insurmountable barriers to the use of ammonia as a marine fuel.
And according to the report by gCaptain, it is increasingly being recognised as a promising alternative fuel in the maritime industry’s transition towards sustainable operations. When burned, ammonia emits no CO2, and its stability and reasonable energy-to-volume ratio make it suitable for long-distance transportation.
Nick Brown, CEO of Lloyd’s Register, was quoted as saying that the application of ammonia as a marine fuel for the container ship sector would be crucial for the industry to achieve the emission reduction targets set by the IMO.
“Under this MOU, we will produce the technical solution for an ammonia dual fuel variant of our 8 200-TEU containership design for MSC. Projects like this are vital for helping us evaluate the risks and opportunities of using ammonia for propulsion and for sharing these learnings across the maritime supply chain,” said Wang Gangyi, CTO of SDARI.
