In October, NYK signed a time charter contract with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. for the transport of ammonia. The vessel Berlian Ekuator, owned and operated by NYK, will be used for the shipments.
According to NYK, the vessel will transport fuel ammonia to be used by JERA Co. In particular, JERA’s Hekinan Thermal Power Station Unit 4 (power output: 1 million kW) plans to demonstrate a test of 20% fuel substitution with ammonia in fiscal 2023.
This will be the world’s first demonstration project to use a large amount of fuel ammonia in a large commercial coal-fired power plant. The project is subsidized by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
In June, Mitsui and JERA signed an ammonia sales and purchase agreement to be used in the demonstration test.
Through this agreement, NYK aims to contribute to the global energy transition by accumulating practical knowledge on the handling of ammonia and developing a marine transportation system for the future expansion of the fuel ammonia market.