Wärtsilä, in cooperation with Knutsen OAS Shipping AS and Repsol, and the Sustainable Energy Catapult Centre, will start the world’s first long term, full-scale, testing of ammonia as a fuel in a marine four-stroke combustion engine.
The testing received a 20 MNOK grant from the Norwegian Research Council through the DEMO 2000 programme.
According to Wärtsilä Ammonia is promising as a carbon-free fuel for marine applications, in view of the maritime industry’s need to fulfil IMO’s vision of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from shipping.
Now, development work by the company, continues with this testing programme, with the project beginning in the Sustainable Energy Catapult Centre’s testing facilities at Stord, Norway during the first quarter of 2021.
Ammonia storage and supply systems will be designed and developed for maximum personal safety, and in parallel with the Fuel Gas Handling System under development as part of the EU project ShipFC
says Egil Hystad, General Manager, Market Innovation at Wärtsilä Marine Business.
Wärtsilä has studied the use of ammonia as a future carbon-free fuel through the ZEEDS initiative. The company’s first ammonia combustions tests took place in Vaasa, Finland, in winter 2020, and will continue with this long-term testing at the Sustainable Energy Catapult Centre facilities in Stord.
The full-scale fuel testing programme aims to provide important insights into the long-term effect of an ammonia fuelled engine in relation to other systems and components in a vessel, including the required safety measures.
