Classification society DNV offered Australian inexperienced expertise, vitality and metals firm Fortescue with class and statutory certificates for its dual-fueled ammonia-powered vessel Green Pioneer. This marked the fruits of a undertaking that started in 2021, when DNV was engaged by Fortescue to work on the feasibility research and ‘Fuel prepared (Ammonia)’ notation for the vessel’s conversion.
DNV’s Technology Qualification course of supplied the framework for the qualification and assurance of the engine modifications, the place trade guidelines had been but to be developed. Additionally, DNV’s Gas Fueled Ammonia notation, an trade first, set out the necessities for the ship’s gas system, gas bunkering connection and piping by way of to the gas shoppers.
With no IMO rules protecting the particular use of ammonia, DNV and Fortescue utilized the SOLAS provision for Alternative Design Arrangements (ADA) with the backing of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, significantly round fireplace and evacuation dangers.
Green Pioneer (Photo: Fortescue)
Dino Otranto, Fortescue Metals CEO, stated, “The Fortescue Green Pioneer proves to the world that the shipping industry can, and must, innovate to stop burning fossil fuels. We know 2024 is a pivotal year for global shipping and will have an enormous impact on ammonia’s use as a marine fuel this decade and beyond. The shipping industry must adopt early use of ‘real zero’, long-term solutions such as green ammonia.”
Cristina Saenz de Santa Maria, DNV’s Regional Manager South East Asia, Pacific & India, Maritime, said, “Our world groups have labored carefully with Fortescue over the past two years, from the engine bed-testing stage by way of to commissioning and trials, to assist understand this milestone.”
In 2022, Fortescue transformed a four-stroke engine to run on ammonia together with diesel at its land-based testing facility in Perth, Western Australia. Conversion work later started on the Green Pioneer on the Seatrium yard in Singapore to transform the vessel’s engines to run on ammonia together with typical fuels.
Fortescue’s Green Pioneer accomplished the world’s first ammonia bunkering trial at an ammonia facility on Jurong Island, within the Port of Singapore in March 2024, following which the vessel obtained flag approval from the Singapore Registry of Ships (SRS) and the ‘Gas Fueled Ammonia’ notation from DNV.
