Japan’s first LNG-fueled tug, the Sakigake, is to be transformed to ammonia fueled operations
Japan’s NYK Line has concluded a contract with the Keihin Dock Co shipyard, an NYK Group firm, to change a tugboat to ammonia gasoline specs. The vessel chosen for the conversion is Japan’s first LNG-fueled tug, the Sakigake, a tugboat delivered in 2015 and operated in Tokyo Bay by NYK Group firm Shin-Nippon Kaiyosha Corporation.
The initiative is a component of a bigger Japanese venture to develop vessels geared up with a domestically produced ammonia-fueled engine initiated in October 2021 by NYK and IHI Power Systems Co., Ltd. (IPS) whose subsidiaries embody engine manufacturer Niigata Power Systems.
The choice to go forward with the Sagigake conversion follows final month’s granting of an AiP for an ammonia-fueled tugboat — the A-Tug — by ClassNK. In the event course of, there have been numerous design challenges to utilizing ammonia as gasoline, however the two corporations say they overcame these with out altering the dimensions of the standard tugboat.
NYK will start the modification in fiscal 2023 with the goal of finishing up demonstration operations within the port of Yokohama in fiscal 2024.
