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Amogy claims significant leap in zero carbon vessel designs

Class society ABS and the Liberian Registry have given approval in principle to a very large ammonia carrier (VLAC) design which will incorporate zero or low emission technology designed to deliver green hydrogen on board the vessel.

Nick Savvides, Europe correspondent

June 5, 2024

2 Min Read
Seonghoon Woo 2
Photo: Amogy

Amogy is a New York-based company that designs and builds fuel cell technology. The company has designed a system that uses a catalyst to split ammonia into its constituent parts, nitrogen and hydrogen, that can then be used in a fuel cell to generate electrical energy.

The fuel cell technology will be used to power the auxiliary electrical system on the VLAC design, but Seoghoon Woo, CEO at Amogy, told Seatrade Maritime News in an interview that he expects to scale up the technology and the ammonia infrastructure to reduce the price to competitive levels.

“The ammonia footprint is similar to conventional fuel,” said Woo, “The cost of ammonia as a fuel is higher but this will be reduced as production is ramped up, currently there are 500 million tonnes of ammonia produced annually, another 10 million tonnes is under construction, for 2030, and a further 100 million tonnes is in the pre-construction phase.”

Woo believes that ammonia can quickly reach cost parity, within four to five years. He said at today’s prices the fuel is not compatible with conventional fuels, but with carbon abatement measures, such as FuelEU, “it will be much cheaper.”

Listen to a podcast on ammonia safety and regulation

According to Woo Amogy has already teamed up with North Sea Container Line (NCL) and Hanwha Ocean to develop a 300 teu vessel which will include Amogy power. The vessel will have an ammonia genset, a fuel cell and ammonia cracking technology, with a chemical catalyst that will need replacing every five years.

Related:MAN and Eastern Pacific Shipping team up on ammonia training

The VLAC design, will have a capacity of 93,000 cu metre ammonia with Amogy’s technology providing 1400 kW of auxiliary power, equivalent to a diesel generator.

However, Amogy is already involved in retrofitting a tugboat which will use its technology and is billed as the first vessel to use ammonia as a fuel, with the expectation that it will be operational this summer.

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About the Author

Nick Savvides

Europe correspondent

Experienced journalist working online, in monthly magazines and daily news coverage. Nick Savvides began his journalistic career working as a freelance from his flat in central London, and has since worked in Athens, while also writing for some major publications including The Observer, The European, Daily Express and Thomson Reuters. 

Most recently Nick joined The Loadstar as the publication’s news editor to develop the profile of the publication, increase its readership and to build a team that will market, sell and report on supply chain issues and container shipping news. 

This was a similar brief to his time at ci-online, the online publication for Containerisation International and Container News. During his time at ci-online Nich developed a team of freelancers and full-time employees increasing its readership substantially. He then moved to International Freighting Weekly, a sister publication, IFW also focused on container shipping, rail and trucking and ports. Both publications were published by Informa. 

Following his spell at Informa Nick joined Reed’s chemical reporting team, ICIS, as the chemical tanker reporter. While at ICIS he also reported on the chemical industry and spent some time on the oil & gas desk. 

Nick has also worked for a time at Lloyd’s Register, which has an energy division, and his role was writing their technical magazine, before again becoming a journalist at The Naval Architect for the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. After eight successful years at RINA, he joined Fairplay, which published a fortnightly magazine and daily news on the website.

Nick's time at Fairplay saw him win the Seahorse Club Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year 2018 awards.

After Fairplay closed, Nick joined an online US start-up called FreightWaves. 

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