Waterborne transport currently accounts for a quarter of the European Union’s greenhouse gas emissions and this figure continues to rise as demand grows

Project objectives

Waterborne transport currently accounts for a quarter of the European Union’s (EU) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and this figure continues to rise as demand grows. European Green Deal Strategy seeks for a 90% reduction in emissions by 2050 through the introduction of more sustainable, affordable, accessible, healthier and cleaner alternatives.

Analyzing the air emissions caused at a mode level, waterborne transport occupies by far the largest part of cargo transport, and accounts for 13% of GHG emissions in the EU. Despite a number of measures being in place since the early years of the last decade, greenhouse gas emissions of shipping increased from 977 million tons (Mt) in 2012 to 1,076 Mt in 2018, a 9.6% rise, according to the 4th IMO GHG study. According to the same source, in global anthropogenic emissions, the share of shipping has increased from 2.76% in 2012 to 2.89% in 2018.

A more drastic course of action will need to be deployed so as emissions from waterborne transport start to decline. Today it is evident, that the blend of marine fuels will require a substantial zero carbon component in order to efficiently tackle the stricter regulatory framework and to achieve the global environmental goals. Such a component is not easy to be developed and be implemented in practice especially if the flow of goods, the efficiency of transport and the quality of service provided are not to be disrupted. Substantial investment will be required as zero carbon fuels require the development of new solutions involving the adoption of new technologies, logistics and operations. Such a fuel is ammonia (ΝΗ3), while it is carbon free, it presents specific challenges in its use. Storage is a major issue as it requires in liquid form almost three times the space of fuel oil for an equivalent use (in terms of work produced).

NH3CRAFT will help Europe achieve two parallel societal objectives: serving the society’s needs and maintaining global maritime leadership.

Both hydrogen and ammonia offer decarbonized operation of shipping when being used as engine fuel. Hydrogen storage as liquid on-board ship requires high pressure and extremely low temperature (approx. -260°C at atmospheric pressure).

In contrast, ammonia comes with a number of advantages. Ammonia needs less space for the same energy content and current market prices are more competitive, it can be easily stored in liquid form (-33°C at atmospheric pressure) and from an industry point of view, ammonia is more mature for use as marine fuel.

The objectives of the NH3CRAFT project are divided into six groups

1

Safe and efficient storage of large quantities of NH3 on vessels

2

Cost reduction on the retrofit of current fleet through modular-design based methodology

3

Control of complexity by modular and scalable structural integration of fuel tanks (on-deck & hull-integrated)

4

Shorter development times through interconnected digitalized tools

5

Push implementation of NH3-fuels with new pertinent technical rules

6

Reduce fleet’s environmental footprint

Ammonia as a safe, alternative fuel

The transition away from fossil fuels in marine industry creates the market need to first answer the question regarding, which is the most suitable fuel to replace the fossil fuels as a sustainable, safe and simple marine fuel. This pushes for confirming the possibility of using ammonia fuel in the marine market and turns focus on creating the technical and safety roadmap for the first applications in the field.

Ammonia has attracted wide interest as a zero emission fuel for shipping. An overview of the SWOT analysis for ammonia as fuel in the ships is presented on the right, where the main attributes are further explained in view of the project objectives.


NH3CRAFT will showcase the entire chain required for the use of ammonia, from supply to its application and will develop guidelines and standards. This will increase the confidence in the use of ammonia and promote its uptake.
NH3CRAFT will be a beacon project for the application of AFE on marine vessels. It provides the information and a head-start in ship & system design, safety evaluation, performance estimation of the ammonia fueled ships in current status of AFE development, which will support the usage of ammonia fueled engines, currently under development, in the near future.

Strenghts

Carbon-free

Low operational pressures

H2-carrier

CO2 & SOx free

Room temperature

Lower cost to LNG

Less flammable than H2

Weaknesses

Pilot fuel for combustion Toxicity

Low exposure limits

NOX compound

Low energy density, 1:3 to heavy oil

Opportunities

Established commercial product in chemical industry

Green NH3 from renewable energy

Available in many ports around the world

Threats

Current global NH3 production not enough

IC-Engines still under development

Other alternative fuels prevail in market

High competition for NH3 in market

Benefits of Ammonia

Presents a very promising alternative fuel for heavy oil substitution, as it contains no carbon, but also compared to other investigated alternative fuels, like liquid or pressurized hydrogen.


Can be stored and transported as a liquid at ambient temperatures, and at practical moderate pressure below 10 bar. It has low flammability with LEL= 15% and UEL= 25%, and it is mildly cryogenic, with a storage capability at atmospheric pressure at -33°C.


As being a hydrogen and nitrogen carrier, it can be easily reformed to hydrogen, through an on-ship installation of ammonia cracking technology, and thus can further provide the necessary hydrogen for fuel cells. It is a renewable fuel, which can be produced from electrical energy.


Can fit the zero-emission strategy and meet the zero-emission target of the marine sector. Comparing to traditional fossil fuel, no CO2 and SOx emissions are generated. From life cycle analysis, the performance of the proposed solution is highly favorable.


Challenges of Ammonia

Requires pilot fuel for combustion, which normally is approximately 5% of the engine power output.

Is toxic and requires stringent handling measures and permissible exposure limits.

Is a noxious compound, thus we need to have a Selective Catalytic Reactor (SCR), meaning that we will need to have urea in storage. Urea decomposes the NOX compounds into harmless nitrogen and water. This, unfortunately, induces more CAPEX in the ammonia installation.


Has a low energy density, so we need much more storage volume for ammonia.


Has no engine already developed. The ammonia fueled engine (AFE) will be released in short term and the development, evaluation and testing are based on data and information provided from manufacturers based on their judgement and experiences.


Requires storage temperatures as low as LPG for atmospheric pressure, much lower than traditional fuels, is toxic and produces high NOX emissions.

Why Ammonia

Is a hydrogen carrier and has a significant energy density.

 

Is already an established commercial product, as the fertilizer industry has more than 100 years of experience working with ammonia, without major accidents.

As fuel storage solution in large scale hasn’t been developed yet. NH3 has the capacity to prevail in market, and an increased use of NH3 is foreseen, thus creating an important market segment, as it is relatively inexpensive as compared to storage of LNG.

Has to be produced by renewable energy, otherwise, carbon-fuels may be required.

Ambition

NH3CRAFT has the ambition to meet the market needs to develop demonstrable technical and regulatory solutions and to achieve a pioneering, active, key-role in the forefront of design and product development in a niche market that refers to introducing alternative fuel options in the maritime industry.

Moreover, NH3CRAFT aims at a new, informative and holistic methodology demonstrated and formed into a software package from and for the marine industry.

Impact

NH3CRAFT will result in strengthening the competitiveness, growth and sustainability of European companies and research organizations. NH3CRAFT will boost the innovation capacity of the consortium partners and further in Europe by building close relations with other successful project consortia.


Other important impacts of the NH3CRAFT approach will be the consideration of environmental and social aspects in parallel with the generation of novel design standards while anticipating new technical regulations for NH3 at ships.


This will enable the deployment of the efficient storage of NH3 and the design approach among European value chains and industries.
Each organization will benefit from innovative solutions in a way that it will reduce costs, increase functionality and modularity of their products, and gain competitive advantage against the global value chains.

When ammonia is used as marine fuel, the emissions of CO2, SOX and fine PM (particulate matter) will mainly come from the pilot diesel fuel which is 1-5% of the engine power output.
Hence, an internal combustion, 2-stroke marine engine, the biggest polluters, will have a reduction of more than 95% in carbon emission when ammonia is used as fuel.
There will be almost zero emission of
SOX and PM. The engine will also have a reduction of NOX emission by more than 80-85% as the engine will work on as a Lean Burn Gas Engine.

In this context, we consider an average quantity of CO2 emitted from an ICE burning Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) equal to 80 kg CO2/GJ and by taking into account that the Maximum Continuous Rating (MCR) of the demonstration vessel is equal to 11,620 kW at 124 RPM, then it can be calculated that the savings in CO2 emissions, when using NH3 as a fuel instead of HFO, is approximately 3,150 kg CO2 per hour of operation of the engine at MCR.

Critical paths of the project highlighting
milestones and WP

Structure of the Work plan in four thematic areas