NYK to convert tug for ammonia

Sakigake, a tugboat currently fuelled by LNG and operated in Tokyo Bay by NYK Group company Shin-Nippon Kaiyosha Corporation will be converted to operate on ammonia fuel.

In the development process, there were various design challenges in using ammonia as fuel, but the two companies overcame these challenges without changing the size of the conventional tugboat and received Approval in Principle (AiP) from ClassNK in July 2022.

NYK will begin modification in fiscal 2023 with the aim of realizing demonstration operations in the port of Yokohama in fiscal 2024.

The R&D for the project was initiated in October 2021 by NYK and IHI Power Systems (IPS) and adopted as part of the Green Innovation Fund project within Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) for the development of vessels equipped with a domestically produced ammonia-fuelled engine.

MAIN PARTICULARS – Sakigake