COP out: World’s first ammonia-powered ship arrives in Dubai … fuelled by diesel

In a neat visualisation of where shipping is on its path towards decarbonisation, the world’s first ammonia capable vessel has arrived in Dubai on diesel fuel. Australian miner Fortescue is showcasing its retrofit project in the waters of the Dubai Harbour Marina during the COP28 conference to shed attention on the creative approaches but also the regulatory changes required to decarbonise shipping.

Forrest used the opportunity to point out that now that green ammonia is emerging as a bulk marine fuel, it is time for the ports to become capable of pollution-free shipping and is calling on authorities to license green ammonia loading.

“This is seriously limiting the progress of the decarbonization of shipping. I look to the leadership of the world’s ports to make clear that running the world’s global shipping on dirty bunker fuel has to stop, as we have a pollution-free alternative,” he said.

Fortescue retrofitted a four-stroke engine to run on a blend of ammonia and diesel at its Perth testing facility earlier this year and has since installed an entire gas fuel delivery system and converted two of the ship’s engines in Singapore to enable it to run in dual-fuel mode.

When the vessel returns to Singapore, which has made itself ammonia capable, the company said it plans to complete commissioning to enable it to perform a world-first ammonia transfer and reach final flag and class approval to operate ammonia dual-fuel engines on the water and use ammonia as a fuel.