Safe and effective application of ammonia as a marine fuel

Abstract

To achieve significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in shipping and enable ship owners to phase out fossil fuels entirely, renewable fuels, such as ammonia, play a crucial role. Ammonia is considered a balanced solution in terms of volumetric energy density and renewable synthetic production cost compared to other renewable fuels. However, many questions still need to be answered to determine if ammonia as a fuel for ships is a feasible option. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to investigate how ammonia can be applied safely and effectively as a marine fuel. An ammonia carrier will be used to study the concept of using ammonia as a marine fuel. To study effective use of ammonia as a marine fuel the following options for power generation are investigated: the steam turbine, gas turbine, internal combustion engine (both compression and spark ignition) and fuel cells (both proton exchange membrane, alkaline and solid oxide fuel cells). The results of effective use of ammonia as a marine fuel are used to develop an ammonia fuel system diagram. This diagram is studied by means of a qualitative risk assessment to gain insight in safety of using ammonia as a marine fuel.