Amogy Calls for Ammonia Incentives

In its recently published white paper, ammonia-to-power technology company Amogy calls for policy makers to provide clear incentives for the uptake of ammonia as a shipping fuel.

The paper Ammonia as an Essential Energy Carrier for the Energy Transition states that shipowners currently lack investment support for zero carbon propulsion systems and technologies.

In the US, strong progress is being made on clean ammonia production. According to International Energy Agency project data, more than 5 million tons per year of clean ammonia production capacity are currently under development, including major projects in Louisiana and Texas. Ammonia projects are also prominently featured in many of the hydrogen hub proposals currently seeking federal funding from the Department of Energy.

Ammonia-to-power systems are likely to be taken up by the shipping industry initially on smaller vessels. Larger ocean-going vessels will adopt the technology as it matures and increasing volumes of ammonia become available. Ammonia-to-power systems can complement combustion engines to provide auxiliary power for maneuvering in port and onboard electricity generation. Hydrogen from ammonia cracking can also be used as a pilot fuel in dual-fuel ammonia engines or to provide feedstock for fuel cells.

Amogy successfully demonstrated the world’s first ammonia-powered drone flight at a 5kW scale in July 2021. This was followed by the demonstration of a 100kW tractor in May 2022. The company unveiled the world’s first ammonia-powered semitruck in early 2023, scaling its technology to 300kW.

Amogy now plans to achieve a 1MW tugboat demonstration by the end of 2023. Between 2024 and 2025, the company will integrate its technology into an ammonia tank barge as the first commercial maritime deployment. The powerpack will use boil-off gas from the liquid ammonia to generate electricity used to maintain tank pressures. By the end of 2024, Amogy intends to offer commercial modular powerpacks with a capacity of 400kW that can achieve larger power scales of a few megawatts by installing several powerpacks in parallel.

Amogy encourages shipowners to establish ambitious company-level emissions reduction targets. This will send a clear signal to stakeholders in the ammonia sector that there is a ready market for adoption.