EMEA News
IBIA CONVENTION: Rotterdam Expects First Ammonia Bunkering in 2024
The Port of Rotterdam expects to see its first ammonia bunkering operation in 2024.
The first bunkering will be a trial operation, expected to be scheduled sometime in 2024, Cees Boon, alternative fuel safety expert of the Harbourmaster Policy Department at the Dutch port, told Ship & Bunker on the sidelines of the IBIA Annual Convention 2022 in Houston on Wednesday.
The trial is likely to involve an inland vessel taking on the ammonia, and a producer of the fuel and a supplier to bunker it have already been identified, Boon said, without naming the companies involved. The trial is part of the MAGPIE project that brings together port authorities, companies and academics working on maritime decarbonisation.
Ammonia is widely expected to take up a significant share of the marine energy mix in future decades because of its lack of carbon content. But the fuel's toxicity remains a significant disadvantage, meaning spills at sea will be much more harmful than those of conventional bunkers, and further research and development work into how ammonia can be safely handled and bunkered will be needed before the shipping industry feels confident in taking it on as an energy source.
The Port of Rotterdam is currently working on developing a safety framework for ammonia bunkering that will eventually be used as the basis for licensing suppliers of the alternative fuel, Boon said.
Methanex subsidiary Waterfront Shipping carried out a similar demonstration bunkering operation of methanol at Rotterdam last year.
