Piloting Multi MW Ammonia Ship Fuel Cells

Recent research suggests that ammonia holds great promise as a marine fuel that can help the shipping sector meet the IMO target of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The EU-funded ShipFC project will install the world’s first ammonia-powered fuel cell on a vessel. The project will see an offshore vessel retrofitted with a large, 2-megawatt, ammonia fuel cell, which allows it to sail solely on the clean fuel for up to 3 000 hours annually. As such, the project will demonstrate that long-range zero-emission voyages with high power on larger ships is possible.

ShipFC’s main mission is to prove and show the case for large-scale zero-emission shipping. We do this through developing, piloting and replicating a modular 2MW fuel cell technology using ammonia as fuel. The project will first adapt and scale-up existing fuel cell solutions to a 2MW system, develop ship and land fuel systems for ammonia and integrate the full system onboard a large offshore construction vessel. Then the solution will be validated through commercial operation for at least 3000 hours during a one-year period. Moreover, socio-technical models and analysis will be performed and a full feasibility study on a series of additional vessels will be conducted.

More information about the project can be found at the project website.