Project approval for new technologies for ammonia-powered shipping

18 March and 8 April 2020. Our Third Advi­sory Board Meeting was a multi-day virtual event held in March and April. We were pleased to learn that three addi­tional colla­bo­ra­tive projects were recom­mended for funding in the product cate­go­ries PK1 ‘Thin Films’ and PK3 ‘Zero-emis­sion Mari­time Propul­sion Systems’.

For the project Elec­tro­ce­ramic Thin Films for the Use of Ammonia in Marine Propul­sion Systems, CAMPFIRE part­ners are deve­lo­ping a quick-start NH₃ membrane reactor for the produc­tion of an opti­mised H₂/NH₃ fuel mixture. This mixture serves as the basis for effi­cient energy conver­sion in fuel cells as well as in engines and turbines. Partial oxida­tion of NH₃ takes place on mixed conduc­ting, O₂-permeable thin film membranes.

In the second joint project, titled Deve­lo­p­ment of a Concept for the Emis­sion-free Opera­tion of an Inland Vessel with the Ammonia as a Fuel, a concept for an ammonia-powered inland vessel is being deve­loped as a func­tional model for a selected ferry line in prepa­ra­tion for the conver­sion of an inland ferry. A 70-kW ammonia reformer is being deve­loped and will be imple­mented as a key tech­no­logy for the engine opera­tion of the ferry; this will serve as the foun­da­tion for retro­fit­ting inland vessels.

As part of the third joint project, Green­Bal­tic­Crui­sing: Deve­lo­p­ment of a Concept for the Imple­men­ta­tion of CAMPFIRE Tech­no­lo­gies for Emis­sion-free Marine Mobi­lity in the Baltic Sea Region, CAMPFIRE part­ners are carrying out a tech­nical evalua­tion for a new propul­sion system, which will consist of an ammonia cracker and fuel cell for a cruise ship with a motor capa­city of 40 MW and an ammonia tank volume of 2,000 tonnes. In addi­tion, a detailed exami­na­tion of the Baltic Sea count­ries, their port struc­tures and ship connec­tions with Nort­hern Germany will be carried out. The overall objec­tive of this process is to develop new economic poten­tial for the region’s small and medium-sized enter­prises (SMEs), speci­fi­cally by estab­li­shing new value chains with equal part­ner­ships in the Baltic Sea Region. National stra­te­gies for the reduc­tion of green­house gas emis­sions and the respec­tive climate targets of the neigh­bou­ring states are being examined and the neces­sary poli­tical, scien­tific and economic stake­hol­ders iden­ti­fied. The legal frame­work is also being refined and further deve­loped in order to enable the use of ammonia as a marine fuel in ship­ping and to create new busi­ness models in Northeast Germany.