by Martyn Wingrove, reporting from Maritime Hybrid, Electric & Hydrogen Fuel Cells Conference, Bergen
Grieg Star is preparing to tackle the green energy transition by making its newbuilding ships ready to adopt ammonia
Despite the risk, toxicity and safety issues, the Norwegian shipowner is betting on ammonia being the future fuel for its shortsea and deepsea operations in the future. Its newbuilding dry bulk carriers will all be built with engines consuming diesel now, but ready for ammonia to be added when it is available as a marine fuel.
Grieg Star managing director Atle Sommer said the group has ordered four open-hatch bulk carriers and four cargo ships for shortsea shipping ready to be retrofitted for ammonia fuels at Riviera Maritime Media’s Maritime Hybrid, Electric & Hydrogen Fuel Cells Conference in Bergen, Norway, 18 October.
They will be ready to consume biofuels as a drop-in fuel from their delivery. “Ships sailing through the energy transition cannot be green from thestart, they need to meet requirements and targets, but would need to use green fuels before 2030,” he said.
Engines will run on marine gasoil from the start, but when ammonia is available in ports, this can be stored in tanks on the open deck and run through the engines for zero-carbon emissions.
“Construction of new vessels to run on ammonia alone would be a costly endeavour,” said Mr Sommer. “Our new open-hatch vessels will be ammonia-ready and run on marine gasoil with energy efficiency, and be designed to enable the addition of ammonia tanks on open deck and handling systems for fuel flexibility.
“This will be necessity in the long term as many ports will need to make green ammonia available, but its production is waiting for client take off, and the shipping industry is waiting for availability before making investments.”