Assessing the risk of ammonia as marine fuel

The use of ammonia as a marine fuel is contentious. Despite it being a zero carbon fuel, its extreme toxicity means that safety issues must be addressed to mitigate risks for people and the environment.

“We see green ammonia as one of the fuels of the future,” said Ole Graa Jakobsen, head of fleet technology, A. P. Moller – Maersk. “It emits no CO2 during combustion and offers a very promising scalability potential.

“Besides the technical challenges, ammonia’s safety challenge is a main outstanding hurdle to solve for ammonia to become a viable ship fuel,” he added.

Phase one of the project will develop a detailed understanding of safety concerns, assessed through a quantitative risk assessment methodology, leading to the development of best practices when using ammonia as a shipping fuel.

The project will also determine the risk of fatality from unintended releases of the gas, as well as the risk to equipment and spaces used for ammonia storage. The project partners will assess alternative vessel designs, optimised to be fuelled by ammonia. Funded by the participating partners, the project will be managed by the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping and is expected to run throughout 2021.