Ammonia2-4
The overall aim of the Ammonia2-4 project is to demonstrate at full scale both a two-stroke and a four-stroke dual fuel marine engine running on ammonia as main fuel and leading to >80% less GHG emissions (including nitrous oxide emissions), NOx emissions below IMO Tier III regulations and a negligible ammonia slip below 10ppm (Euro 6 compliant).
4 Strokes Engine
Background
The projected growth of the global fleet in the years to come will constitute a great opportunity and at the same time a big challenge for deep sea shipping. Despite the clear direct economic benefits, risks for indirect effects on environment might be at place.
According to 2020 IMO data, by 2050 global GHG emissions from shipping may increase by up to 50% as compared to 2018, in case nothing changes. In addition, EU has even more ambitious goal of cutting all transport emissions by 90% by 2050, as stipulated in the Green Deal.
Key Facts
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A Pan-European consortium consisting of the leading marine equipment manufacturer Wärtsilä, classification society DNV, container shipowner MSC, SME C-Job and Italian research institute CNR will work towards closing the technological, commercial and regulatory gap between insights on the feasibility of burning ammonia in large vessels and actual proof.
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The proposed four-stroke innovation is a new build 10 MW engine to be demonstrated in lab conditions, while the two-stroke innovation is a medium-pressure ammonia fuelling platform that can be retrofitted onto any two-stroke marine engine in the market today.
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By developing both innovations in parallel, the project hopes to significantly contribute to reaching the IMO 2050 targets and reduce CO2 emitted by deep sea vessels calling at EU ports by 2.3 million tons annually.
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Ammonia has not been used as a fuel in practice until recently; it is currently the only feasible option for enabling deep decarbonization of oceangoing vessels.
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The majority of deep-sea vessels use two types of ICEs: two-stroke and four- stroke engines with various features appealing to different segments of the market.
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The Ammonia2-4 project will move beyond the state of the art by developing and demonstrating the feasibility of large-scale ammonia marine engines for both market segments, outperforming existing “state of the market” by over 81%.
There is growing agreement among researchers, industry stakeholders and policymakers that internal combustion engines running on ammonia can be an important enabler in reaching the 2050 goals.
The overall aim of the Ammonia2-4 project is to demonstrate at full scale two types of dual fuel marine engines running on ammonia as main fuel:
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a 4-stroke engine, demonstrated in lab conditions closely mimicking real-life operations in ambient conditions
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a 2-stroke medium-pressure ammonia fuel injection platform, for retrofitting on existing 2-stroke marine engines
Both engine innovations are expected to result in at least 80% less GHG emissions (including nitrous oxide emissions), NOx emissions below IMO Tier III regulations and a negligible ammonia slip below 10ppm (Euro 6 compliant).
The expected end result is the commercial exploitation within the next ten years of the demonstrated solutions towards more than 90% of the maritime intercontinental transport in terms of gross tonnage, including retrofits and newbuilds, together with an annual reduction of CO2 emitted by deep sea vessels calling at EU ports by 2.3 million tons and reduce the emissions of harmful pollutants such as SOx by 15 tons annually.
A number of non-technical aspects crucial for a successful uptake of ammonia as marine fuel will be investigated:
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health & safety
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ammonia supply infrastructure
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crew training & acceptance
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novel standardisation pathways for regulating emissions from ammonia marine engines.
The Goal
2 Strokes Engine
The People
The driving force behind the project is a Pan-European consortium consisting of:
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Wärtsilä – the leading marine equipment manufacturer
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DNV – the largest classification society worldwide
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MSC – one of the world’s top three container shipowners
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C-Job – the award-winning naval architecture SME
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CNR – the largest research institute in Italy
The consortium will work towards closing the current technological, commercial and regulatory gap between insights on the feasibility of burning ammonia in small engines and the actual proof that a large oceangoing vessel can be powered by ammonia as the main fuel in a safe, operationally efficient and economical way.
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