With a test of a poison paradise (don’t they know that it’s toxic?)
Green ammonia has emerged as a key alternative fuel that could help the maritime industry to reach its emissions targets, but the technology is far from established. BT GRAPHIC: KENNETH LIM

With a test of a poison paradise (don’t they know that it’s toxic?)

This is a reduced version of The Business Times’ ESG Insights newsletter. Sign up here to get the complete version in your inbox every week.

??This week: A report released this week by the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) seems to suggest that it might be feasible to conduct pilot tests for ammonia bunkering in Singapore.

The report determined that the risks of conducting the pilots – ammonia is a highly toxic fuel – were “low or mitigable”. It also identified locations in Singapore where the pilot testing can take place.

The feasibility of ammonia bunkering is critical to the maritime industry’s decarbonisation strategy. International shipping, which contributed about 2 per cent of all human-related carbon emissions in 2018. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has set an initial target to cut emissions intensity by 40 per cent from 2008 levels by 2030, and by 70 per cent by 2050. Absolute emissions for international shipping has a 50 per cent by 2050 reduction goal.

The industry has coalesced behind ammonia as an important green fuel candidate. The fuel ticks a number of important boxes:

  • Combusting ammonia emits zero carbon;
  • Ammonia has a higher energy density than hydrogen;
  • Ammonia does not need to be cooled as much as liquid hydrogen;
  • The process of synthesising ammonia from green hydrogen is more efficient than methane synthesis; and
  • Ammonia synthesis is highly scalable.

Unfortunately, ammonia is like a star player on a sports team whose talents are game-changing, but who has a toxic personality that could wreck the team if not properly managed. Except that ammonia is literally toxic. Ammonia can be a problem because it:

  • Requires green hydrogen, which is still much costlier than fossil fuels at current levels of technology and scale;
  • Is highly toxic, flammable and corrosive, and therefore requires significant safeguards;
  • Does not ignite in the same way as fossil fuels and therefore requires engine redesigns; and
  • Requires significant global coordination of standards.

The technology is so nascent that there aren’t even commercially available vessels at the moment that can use ammonia. Pilot tests at this stage will therefore have to use proxies at various parts of the bunkering process.

It is not yet clear if Singapore will want to do bunkering testing at this time within its borders, given the significant safety concerns.

An October 2022 report by the Maritime Energy & Sustainable Development Centre of Excellence (MESD) – which like GCMD also receives support from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore – raised substantial questions about the safety of ammonia bunkering.

That earlier study further concluded that existing mitigation technologies to address leaks “have not found ways to meet the requirement of future ammonia bunkering operations”.

Nevertheless, “further studies with physical validation are indispensable, as this is the decisive way to provide quantitative and qualitative proof of the mentioned mitigation measures.”

If Singapore deems it too risky to go straight to bunkering pilot tests at this time, the testing of safety measures could be a potential alternative that would still be valuable to the ammonia debate.

?? Top ESG reads:

  1. Have you or someone you know made an impact on the environment and community? Maybe it’s time to recognise that achievement through the inaugural Sustainability Impact Awards.
  2. Singapore’s national hydrogen strategy lacks concrete targets, policies to create demand and mitigate risk, and a consolidated regulatory framework, says Reed Smith partner Kohe Hasan.
  3. Asian asset managers are laggards when it comes to managing climate and nature-related risks, says WWF-Singapore.
  4. Australia plans to start issuing green sovereign bonds from mid-2023, although the possible amounts raised has not been shared.
  5. Banks in Europe are putting up a fight against planned ESG rules that could make it easier to sue errant companies.
  6. Improving workplace gender diversity at maritime companies is a massive challenge in a male-dominated sector.

What do you think about today’s newsletter? Let us know at [email protected]. Sign up for the full version here.

要查看或添加评论,请登录

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了