November 24, 2022 [Manifold Times] – George Collard of global energy and commodity price reporting agency Argus Media on Wednesday (3 November) published a report on a new collaboration between Fratelli Cosulich and SeaTech to explore an ammonia bunkering vessel.
Italian marine fuel firm Fratelli Cosulich is teaming up with Singapore-based vessel designer SeaTech and Italian maritime classification society Rina to develop a design for an ammonia bunker delivery tanker.
SeaTech will design the tanker, Rina will verify the ship’s compliance suitability, particularly on the safety of handling ammonia, and Fratelli Cosulich’s Singapore-based bunkering unit will provide the data to assess if the vessel is suitable for commercial operations.
Ammonia is a leading zero-carbon marine fuel candidate, but no ships are using it at the moment. The first vessel to run on ammonia is expected to be ready in 2023. But there are some major challenges to overcome before it can be widely adopted as a marine fuel, including a lack of supply and infrastructure. Another hurdle for ammonia as a bunker fuel is safety, given it is highly toxic to humans and marine life.
Like other future marine fuels, the cost of ammonia bunkering is currently prohibitive. Argus assessed the price of grey ammonia at $1,813/t in northwest Europe on a 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil basis in the week to 28 October, compared with a 0.5pc fuel oil price in Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) of $591/t. Green ammonia was assessed even higher, at $2,682/t.
Shipping would use green ammonia or blue ammonia. The former is produced by adding nitrogen to green hydrogen, and the latter by using carbon capture and storage technology when producing grey ammonia. Most of the world’s current ammonia is grey and is used in the fertilizer industry.
The World Bank has backed green ammonia as a future marine fuel, and the IEA has forecast green ammonia could make up around 45pc of global bunker consumption by 2050.
Maersk, the world’s biggest marine fuel consumer, is one of a number of shipping firms exploring the use of green ammonia.
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