CF08_2 NH3 Marine Engine Update, 01. October, 2025

Within the CAMPFIRE network, an inter­di­sci­pli­nary consor­tium is deve­lo­ping a propul­sion concept for inland waterway vessels based on ammonia as part of the CF08_2 rese­arch project: “NH3 Ship Engine.” The propul­sion system consists of a high-speed combus­tion engine powered by ammonia, which drives a gene­rator. To improve igni­tion and the effi­cient conver­sion of ammonia in the engine, a cracker is connected upstream, which endo­ther­mi­cally breaks down a small portion of the ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen and feeds this mixture to the combus­tion engine as pilot fuel. In the ship propul­sion system planned for later, the gene­rator feeds up to 350 kWel into a hybrid elec­tric power­train to reduce load fluc­tua­tions in the cracker-engine unit and enable distri­bu­tion to multiple propeller drives for shallow water opera­tion typical of inland waterway vessels. Before being applied in a real inland vessel, the entire system will be installed in contai­ners for compre­hen­sive testing and trialing at the CAMPFIRE Open Inno­va­tion Lab (COIL). The contai­ners are curr­ently being set up at the respec­tive part­ners’ sites and the infra­struc­ture at COIL is being prepared.

The container system (GenSet) with combus­tion engine and coupled gene­rator is being set up at project partner 2G in Heek. The heart of the project and its main deve­lo­p­ment pillar is the ammonia-powered engine based on the Lieb­herr A966. The six-cylinder unit, inclu­ding the two fuel systems for liquid ammonia (up to 70 bar) and hydrogen or cracker product gas, and the gene­rator are already installed on the module frame and will be inte­grated into the container in the coming weeks, toge­ther with a system for clea­ning the engine exhaust gas and compre­hen­sive R&D measu­re­ment tech­no­logy. The entire system will then be commis­sioned and tested by the manu­fac­turer 2G using hydrogen (as the sole fuel) before being sent to COIL in Poppen­dorf near Rostock. Against this back­ground, the project part­ners Lieb­herr, GasKraft Engi­nee­ring, and the Univer­sity of Rostock met at 2G in Heek on September 12, 2025, to coor­di­nate the final tech­nical details of the system setup prior to testing and deli­very of the GenSet.