November 2, 2023 [Manifold Times]- Data and insights gathered through the research will serve as a strong foundation to bring solutions to mitigate ammonia bunkering release scenarios in Singapore waters, says lead research engineer.

Singapore Maritime Institute on Friday (6 October) said it partnered with several parties to research the potential safety, mitigation technology and environmental challenges in ammonia bunkering.

The partners are Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI), researchers from the Maritime Energy & Sustainable Development Centre of Excellence (MESD) at NTU, A*STAR’s Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) and the NUS Tropical Marine Science Institute.

Building on the results obtained in MESD’s previous study, “Ammonia as a marine fuel – bunkering, safety and release simulations”, which was released in October 2022, researchers from the three institutes broadened their research focus to encompass a wider range of factors influencing ammonia release.

The expanded study, titled “Mitigation technology and environmental impact from ammonia bunkering release”, considers different potential ammonia leakage scenarios and aims to develop recommended emergency protocols for addressing such ammonia leaks.

In a video accompanying the post, Venugopalan Raghavan, Lead Research Engineer, Institute of High Performance Computing, A*Star, said: “The project aims to establish advanced modelling and simulation capabilities for ammonia dispersion in sea and air, to develop mitigation technologies for ammonia bunkering in marine environments and assess the environmental impact of ammonia release.”

“The data and insights that we gather through this research will serve as a strong foundation for us to bring solutions to mitigate ammonia bunkering release scenarios in Singapore waters.”

Dr Liu Ming, Research Lead and Project PI, MESD, said “An essential part of our research is a development of practical and effective mitigation solutions. The development and findings we have gleaned from our previous research gave us a clearer understanding and scale of that goal.”

“By examining the existing ammonia mitigation examples and technologies, such as the use of water and physical barriers, we have a strong head start to begin creating effective mitigation solutions for safe ammonia. However, there is no proven mitigation solution to safely resolve ammonia release on the water surface.”

“And this has been a key focus of our research efforts. By solving this challenge, we will have a full range of mitigation solutions that cover the different possibilities of ammonia release. And the fast track the enablement of ammonia bunkering in Singapore. Our research will provide a comprehensive assessment of a safe ammonia bunkering operation.”

Pro Trial: Access 12,600 Tank Terminal and Production Facilities

12,600 tank storage and production facilities as per the date of this article. Click on the button and register to get instant access to actionable tank storage industry data