GCMD awards ammonia bunkering safety study to DNV-led consortium

The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) is pleased to award its ammonia bunkering safety study to a DNV-led consortium, including partnership with Surbana Jurong and the Singapore Maritime Academy (SMA). The intent of this study is to define a robust set of safety guidelines and operational envelopes that will establish the basis of a regulatory sandbox for trials at two local bunkering sites.

Handling ammonia as a bunker fuel will require more stringent safety and operational guidelines compared to transporting ammonia as a commodity given the substantively higher transfer frequency and the need for more flexible transfer configurations. This study will build on guidelines that have been developed for safe handling of ammonia as a commodity by defining and then integrating or overlaying the guidelines required for safe handling ammonia as a bunker fuel.

In particular, Surbana Jurong’s understanding of the local landscape will be critical to site identification for ammonia bunkering. SMA, part of Singapore Polytechnic, will co-develop workforce curriculum and provide manpower development in handling ammonia as a bunker fuel.

GCMD announced its first Invitation for Proposals “Defining the safety and operational envelopes to enable ammonia bunkering pilot and demonstration” on the 8th of October 2021 to a short list of classification societies and engineering consultants and received a strong response upon its close. Evaluation of the proposals was carried out by a team comprising industry experts with extensive experience and knowledge in this area, and the GCMD projects team.

GCMD has chosen to look at ammonia bunkering as its first project because ammonia is among the most energy-efficient green fuel to be produced. We have chosen to commission this study in Singapore; with Singapore being a population dense island nation and a major bunkering hub, the stringent guidelines developed in this study will likely be extensible to ports elsewhere.

explained Professor Lynn Loo, the CEO of GCMD.

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On news of the award, Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV Maritime, added “Our research shows that a number of safety gaps hold the potential to disrupt the speed and success of shipping’s energy transition. The safe handling of ammonia – among the most promising future fuels – is one such gap which urgently needs to be closed, given the threat it poses to seafarers and ships unless properly managed.”

Ahead of the award of this study, GCMD signed letters of collaboration with 21 industry partners who have agreed to share confidential technical information with the consortium so a robust set of recommendations can be made to regulators.

In parallel, GCMD has initiated discussions with the Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI) and the Centre for Excellence for Maritime Safety (CEMS) at the Singapore Polytechnic to operationalise the manpower development framework for training operators for the ammonia bunkering pilot.

In any sustainable transition, a robust management of change process must always be in place where safety is mandatory to protect lives, the environment and investments

…said Dr Sanjay C Kuttan, GCMD Chief Technology Officer.

The study will commence in February 2022 and is expected to take 10 to 12 months to complete.

The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) was formed on 1 August 2021 with funding from the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and six founding partners, namely BHP, BW, DNV Foundation, Eastern Pacific Shipping, Ocean Network Express and Sembcorp Marine. In an exclusive interview to SAFETY4SEA, Prof Lynn Loo, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) shared her thoughts about the goals of this newly established NGO in Singapore, highlighting how it can help shipping achieve its decarbonization targets.