WinGD’s “focus on ammonia” in future fuel race

“Our ammonia-fuelled vessel is going to the shipyard in June next year and will be in the water by December or January 2026,” Volkmar Galke (pictured), executive director sales at WinGD, tells The Motorship. Hardly a secret that the company has been testing out its ammonia engine, Galke seems unconcerned about the noises concerning the lack of availability of ammonia as a marine fuel.

“Ammonia is everywhere, we may need to specify the cleanliness but it’s NH3 in general,” Galke says, referring to the widescale use of ammonia as a fertiliser. He added that the current tests at the test centre are using standard NH3, not specially treated and are “running well”.

Of course, the company has a broad portfolio of engines running the full gauntlet of alternative fuels such as methanol and LNG. Cosco and other major container lines have ordered a number of WinGD’s popular X‑DF dual-fuel range engines that run on methanol (the X‑DF-M model) with bore sizes ranging from 520mm up 920mm. These methanol-fuelled container ships are set to sail next year while at the moment the attention is squarely on ammonia at WinGD.

“Our R&D department is really pushing forward with methanol but the focus at the moment in the market is clearly on ammonia,” says Galke.

One aspect of the market for future fuels that all marine engine makers tend to agree on is that without regulation penalising the use of fossil fuels, the take up of alternatives to HFO will be minimal.

Regulation and key contract wins

“Industry needs to support the regulators to come up with regulations which are feasible and are also applicable,” says Galke, adding that with fossil fuels remaining the cheaper option it’s difficult for ammonia technology to win through, “For instance users still emitting CO2 should be penalised whereas users going with NH3 should be rewarded.”

With well to wake being the IMO’s favoured method of measuring emissions and with the UN body’s approach being followed by regulators in the EU and elsewhere, this poses some issues for ammonia currently.

“At the moment, for testing and putting it into the market, we have to be a little bit tolerant and open to where it’s produced. But in the long run it [ammonia] cannot be produced from fossil fuels or from fossil energy,” says Galke, explaining the issue of a well to wake approach with a substance like ammonia which can be produced in a number of ways. Not all of them clean of course.

Galke talks about a few “front runners” and “bold decision makers” who are shipowners choosing future fuels, trying to “shape the market” but are these visionaries too few to really instil widespread change and adoption of ammonia?

There are signs that WinGD’s efforts with ammonia are paying off. A range of ships are being built with the X‑DF-A, the company’s popular dual fuel engine range, this one ready to run on ammonia. Galke mentions Ammonia carriers and smaller container feeders with a X52DF-A, Newcastlemax bulk carriers, the 210,000 dwt vessels being fitted with X72DF-A, Aframax oil tankers dwt up to 120,000 fitted with X62DF-A as well as a VLCC on the cards soon for ammonia. The number of companies involved with these projects, including shipowner AET, Belgium’s CMB.TECH and China’s SunRui Marine Environment Engineering to name a few, suggest that the “bold decision makers” are among the biggest maritime players in the world.

“Next we have to talk containers with Ammonia,” says Galke, indicating that the market penetration of his company’s ammonia engines is far from over.

Toxicity and markets

The shipping segments mentioned by Galke are clearly the ones most suitable for ammonia given it is a toxic substance so unlike methanol is unlikely to be used on cruise ships. Earlier this year, scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a study which found burning ammonia as a fuel could worsen air quality and lead to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths annually.

On the topic of ammonia’s general toxicity, Galke says: “Is it toxic? Yes of-course the industry knows this for ages. But from a technology point of view, on the engine, which is our part, it’s absolutely handleable. It’s not a safety problem, as verified with various class societies.”

Regarding scientific claims as to the possible damage to the environment from nitrous oxides as a result of using ammonia as a marine fuel, it’s probably wise to cite the International Energy Agency’s views as well. According to their predictions, ammonia will account for about half the maritime fuel consumption by 2070. In fact, the IEA in its 2023 Net Zero Roadmap suggests ammonia must emerge as the dominant shipping fuel if the industry has any hope of reaching net zero by 2050.

Similarly to the IEA’s findings, Galke is not too hopeful of methanol’s chances of staying the course as an alternative lower emission marine fuel. “Methanol is going to not phase out, but it will be lower, and ammonia will come in,” he says when asked for predictions on the next five to 10 years in the maritime market, adding that he envisions ammonia being used to transport hydrogen for its various applications.

So, what of WinGD’s place in the ammonia market? “If you see the market, we are the only one with commercial projects on ammonia vessels, not just ammonia ready,” says Galke. With direct competition in the 2-stroke market from MAN B&W which is also looking for a full commercial release of an ammonia engine next year, the race is on for what could be a large part of the maritime market.