The IMO reports that significant progress has been made on the development of draft interim guidelines for the safety of ships using ammonia as fuel. Approval of the final guidelines is scheduled for December 2024, with a series of key regulatory updates due in the coming years.
A new partnership between the trio aims to produce 5 million tonnes of renewable ammonia per year at multiple locations across India. Round-the-clock renewable energy from the Indian grid will be utilised, as well as electrolysers manufactured via a separate tie-up between Greenko and John Cockerill.
First Ammonia’s renewable ammonia project in Texas has taken another step, with commodity giant Uniper joining as project partner. Renewable ammonia will be produced for export from the Port of Victoria starting in 2026.
Sembcorp, IHI and GE will explore potential retrofits to existing gas turbines at the Sakra power plant to run on 100% ammonia fuel. The Sakra plant currently features two GE 9FA turbines, which are among the models IHI & GE are targeting for development of a “retrofittable” ammonia combustion system.
The pair will collaborate on operations, distribution logistics & marketing of ammonia fuel from NeoGreen’s under-development project portfolio. This includes planned production projects in Paraguay, Namibia and Egypt (next to the Suez Canal).
The Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance has launched a tender process for container shipping powered by zero-emissions fuels. The twenty-member Alliance includes major global consumer brands, and is seeking bids to meet an aggregate demand of 600,000-plus TEUs over 3 years, with a book-and-claim approach to be used for fuel certification. The demand-side initiative comes as a new report from UMAS and the Getting to Zero Coalition finds the window of opportunity for the global shipping industry to meet its 2030 goals is closing.
REC Limited has committed nearly $5 billion total to three new energy projects in Odisha state, including renewable ammonia projects to be developed by Avaada and ACME Group. Avaada also announced that its facility will include a “cutting-edge” ammonia storage facility, to be developed at Gopalpur Port. The new funds follow a $1 billion investment in Avaada from infrastructure giant Brookfield earlier this year.
Green Energy Park has announced that its first ammonia production & export facility will be located in the State of Piauí, Brazil. In the initial phase, one million tonnes of ammonia per year will be produced & exported to a midstream distribution hub on the island of Krk in Croatia, which is on the doorstep of key European industrial regions.
US-based Talus Renewables has deployed its modular, containerised ammonia & fertiliser production system in Kenya. Solar power and water will be utilised to produce one tonne per day of fertilizer for the Kenya Nut Corporation, with multiple, larger plants already planned. The system will also be deployed in the US for the Iowa-based Landus Cooperative.
The US Department of Energy has selected seven hydrogen hub applications to proceed to a funding negotiation stage, with $7 billion to be split between them. Fertiliser, power generation, industrial decarbonisation and heavy vehicle transport are all target markets for the new hubs, with locations to range from the Gulf Coast, Appalachia, the Midwest to the Californian coast.