Fortescue Green Pioneer: Proving Ground for Ammonia as Maritime Fuel

Fortescue’s Green Pioneer, billed as the world’s first ammonia dual-powered vessel, left Singapore in January of this year on voyage past the Cape of Good Hope en route initially to Southampton, both for Port State Control and to demonstrate the use of ammonia in its engines to the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), and then on to London’s Canary Wharf where is stayed through mid-April, before travelling to other north European ports.

At the time when the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) was debating a global carbon pricing mechanism for the shipping industry to support the target of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping by or around 2050, Dr. Andrew Forest the Chairman of Fortescue is quoted in a  2024 Singapore MPA press release that, “The Fortescue Green Pioneer is proof that safe, technical solutions for ammonia power engines exist” and added, “We must push to see global emitters paying fair carbon prices for heavy fuels used in traditional shipping. These prices must provide clear investment signals to drive green investment.”

In a recent Fortescue article, Dr. Forest addressed the industry challenge of the regulatory maturity and availability of sufficient volumes of cost competitive green fuels by saying, “There is no time to waste on so-called transitional fuels that will only serve to slow our progress towards a world no longer reliant on fossil fuels.”

“Dr. Forest is likely to have been disappointed by the progress at the recent MEPC 83,” said Philip Lewis, Director of Research, Intelatus. “On the positive action front in terms of the IMO strategy, a fuel standard to reduce GHG fuel intensity and a global mechanism for pricing emissions was agreed, to come into force in 2027 for ocean-going ships over 5,000 gross tonnage. However, it should be noted that these mid-term measures did not gain wholesale support with several major countries abstaining from the vote and the U.S. delegation being absent from the meeting itself.”

Setting the Scene: Ammonia

According to DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insight portal, ~99.1% of the operational fleet today runs on alternative fuels. Over 17% of newbuilds feature alternative fuel capability (of which ammonia ~0.5%). ~1% of the new orders in the last 12 months have been ammonia vessels. LNG, a transition fuel, is the most common alternative fuel solution. As shown in the chart, there are more LNG, LPG, methanol and hydrogen vessels than those featuring ammonia. Of interest, outside gas carriers, many of which carry ammonia, the largest segment to order ammonia fueled vessels is the dry bulk segment. Owners ordering large dual-fuel ammonia bulk carriers include Bocimar, Berge Bulk and MOL.

Alternative Fuels & Ammonia

Ammonia is formed by a combination of nitrogen and hydrogen and can be converted to useable energy by both internal combustion engines and fuel cells. Ammonia fuel is carbon free and emits no carbon dioxide when burned i.e. on a tank-to-wake basis. At room temperature and atmospheric pressure, ammonia is a colorless pungent gas. For bulk storage, ammonia requires liquefaction either through compression to 10 times atmospheric pressure or chilling to 33o c.

When made from hydrogen produced by electrolyzers powered by renewable or nuclear energy, the resulting green or pink ammonia results in a zero-emissions energy carrier on a well-to-wake basis. However, the vast majority of ammonia is currently made from fossil fuels and in particular natural gas. Producing sufficient volumes of certified zero emission hydrogen production is a key requirement for the success of near-zero and zero-emission well-to-wake operations.

To support ammonia transportation, significant port loading and unloading infrastructure is already in place which can potentially be used for ammonia bunkering.

“In addition to the sufficient supply of green hydrogen, significant challenges face the uptake of ammonia, including its high toxicity, stringent handling requirements, immature regulations, storage volumes (2.4 tomes that of petroleum-based fuels), corrosiveness to certain metals, and poor combustion characteristics requiring a high percentage of pilot fuel,” offered Intelatus’ Lewis. “Fortescue’s Green Pioneer project aims to address some of these challenges.”

So, What is Fortescue Doing?

Established in 2003, Fortescue’s operations are organized into iron ore mining activities and energy technologies required to support the group’s decarbonization plans, including developing battery energy storage systems and electrolyzer capability to produce green hydrogen and green ammonia, providing one solution to reducing shipping emissions.

The company expects to ship ~190-200 million tonnes of iron ore in 2025. Fortescue Shipping owns a fleet of eight conventionally powered Singapore-flagged very large ore carries (VLOCs) and the Green Pioneer. 2024 Scope 1 emissions from shipping amounted to ~300,000 tonnes of CO2e. Early this year, it was reported that Fortescue plans to retrofit all of its own ships with ammonia engines by 2030 and that any newbuilds will feature ammonia engines. Fortescue also charters in ships which contribute to the group’s Scope 3 emissions, the Net Zero target for which is 2040. In line with its plans to operate ammonia capable vessels, Fortescue recently announced the charter of a 210,000 dwt newbuild Newcastlemax ore carrier from Bocimar, which will be delivered by the end of 2026, one of a series of ten sister vessels equipped with WinGD dual-fuelX72DF ammonia-fueled two-stroke engines.

Fortescue has developed its Fortescue Zero Decarbonized Mining Approach, the aspiration for which is to achieve Scope 1 & 2 terrestrial emissions in Australia by 2030. Mines will feature battery electric trucks, excavators and drills, autonomous vehicles, fast battery chargers for mobile mine equipment, and ore processing powered by wind and solar, supported by battery energy storage systems. The company’s Green Metal project will use renewable energy and green hydrogen reduction technology to produce low emissions metal suitable for most global steel plants. Shipping semi-processed metal instead of the ore will also reduce shipping volumes with a consequential reduction on shipping emissions, supporting the company’s aim to reduce emissions intensity levels from shipping iron ore by 50% from 2021 levels by 2030.

The Green Pioneer

Working closely with the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) Singapore, Fortescue’s Green Pioneer is the world’s first vessel to load ammonia (in combination with diesel) as a marine fuel in a vessel featuring duel-fueled ammonia internal combustion engines in the Port of Singapore when it bunkered with liquid ammonia from the existing ammonia facility at Royal Vopak’s Singapore Banyan Terminal on Jurong Island, ahead of conducting sea trials while operating on ammonia.

The Singapore flagged vessel has a DNV notification indicating that the vessel is designed for the safe operation of a gas-fueled ammonia system

Bought by Fortescue Metals Group in March 2022 from MMA Offshore for $7.75 million for conversion as a test bed to demonstrate the use of ammonia in maritime operations, the conversion journey of the diesel-electric 3,100 dwt PSV started on land, when Fortescue converted a four-stroke Cummins engine to run on ammonia (in combination with diesel) at is Perth testing facility in Western Australia.

The vessel began shipyard conversion at Seatrium Benoi in Singapore in May 2023 with the addition of a complete fuel delivery system (including and on-deck ammonia fuel tank, the nitrogen purge gas generator, the electrical control room and fuel, ammonia, nitrogen and water transfer lines, and a scrubber to treat unburned ammonia) and the conversion of two of the vessel’s four Cummins KTA50-DM engines. According to the MPA, “The two-four-stroke retrofitted engines served as proxy for the commercialization of ammonia-fueled marine engines under development globally.”

Pilot fuel is still used for combustion ignition, but studies are ongoing to reduce the amount of pilot fuel (and associated nitrous oxide post-combustion emissions) required for the combustion process when using ammonia. Fortescue has run up to 70% ammonia and 30% diesel but generally runs on 30% ammonia and 70% diesel during demonstrations. The vessel is equipped with selective catalytic reduction units to remove any NOx from the exhaust stream.

Working with Fortescue, Norway’s Marine Service Nord supplied and commissioned the ammonia fuel supply system consisting of four separate on-deck skids (an ammonia fuel condition skid, a bunker station skid, a heat recovery skid and a nitrogen generator skid), as well as the interconnecting piping.

The vessel features several systems aimed at enhancing vessel safety. These include the fuel delivery system which features automated bunkering capability, whereby the crew open and close fuel valves remotely on the bridge once the bunker hose is connected. Numerous sensors and pressure gauges are installed throughout the vessel to monitor system performance and any potential leaks.

Proving the System, Identifying the Challenges

“The Green Pioneer has successfully demonstrated that a vessel operating an ammonia fuel system can meet the requirements of a major Ship Registry and leading international classification society,” said Intelatus’ Lewis. “It has proved to be an indispensable technology development and crew training platform for Fortescue.”

But the project also highlights some of the ongoing challenges of adopting zero-emission ammonia operations. These range from international safety and ship design conventions that have been designed with conventional hydrocarbon energy carriers in mind to the lack of certified green (or pink) ammonia supply to ensure zero emissions on a well-to-wake basis. Whereas large industrials like Fortescue may consider manufacturing or procuring their own low and zero emission fuels, many other companies will look to port and bunker suppliers to develop the supply of suitable quantities of certified energy carriers.