Singapore’s port authority joins ammonia marine fuel alliance

LONDON (ICIS)–The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) on Wednesday joined an international coalition of fertilizer, engineering and shipping firms striving to develop ammonia powered marine vessels.

Known as “The Castor Initiative”, members of the Joint Development Project (JDP) include MISC, Lloyd’s Register (LR), Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), MAN Energy Solutions (MAN), and Yara International.

“The addition of MPA and Yara means that the alliance, which was first unveiled in January 2020, now has a complete representation from all areas of the maritime ecosystem,” MPA said in a news release.

“The experience and expertise of each partner will be central to the success of the initiative, from conception to project realisation.”

The MPA noted the consortium will “tap onto MPA’s experience as a bunkering hub and flag state to gather insights on safety issues and ammonia bunkering procedures, and gain access to research capabilities in Singapore”.

To meet the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) 2050 ambitions on halving greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 2008 levels, zero-carbon vessels need to enter the world fleet by 2030, the MPA added.

“Today’s announcement follows a key project milestone in September 2020 when LR awarded Approval in Principle (AIP) to SHI for its ammonia-fuelled tanker design with the aim of commercialising these developments by 2024,” the statement continued.

“While ammonia is one of the fuels being considered by maritime stakeholders, the partners also recognise that the shipping industry will need to explore multiple decarbonisation pathways and hope their collaboration will spur others in the maritime industry to join forces on addressing this global challenge.”