World’s first clean ammonia-powered container ship to reduce CO2 emissions by 11,000 tons annually
Image by Yara International
Norwegian chemical manufacturer Yara International, through its subsidiary Yara Clean Ammonia, has partnered with North Sea Container Line to launch the world’s first ammonia-powered shipping vessel by 2026.
Named Yara Eyde, the container ship is initially set to sail between Norway and Germany covering a distance of 442 nautical miles/508 miles before expanding its operations to support higher distances and weights. Sailing this route emission-free, Yara Eyde is expected to reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of a diesel-powered vessel in the same route by 11,000 tons per year.
While the diesel-powered shipping industry emits less carbon dioxide and is more climate-friendly compared to air freight and other transportation modes, it still emits 706 million tonnes of CO2 into the world’s atmosphere. As of 2022, this is approximately 3% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, there is a growing interest among cargo owners to reduce CO2 emissions to achieve net-zero targets initiated by the United Nations Net Zero Coalition along with growing customer demand for sustainable supply chain solutions.
In fact, in order to achieve the objective of controlling global warming below 1.5°C by 2030 as called for by the Paris Agreement in 2016, global emissions need to reduce by 45% by 2030. Therefore, initiatives such as Yara Eyde, even with the initial distance covered by the vessel being much shorter than most cross-continent shipping vessels, are expected to propel the maritime shipping industry into reducing its carbon emissions and working towards achieving net-zero objectives in the global supply chain.
Ammonia burned cleanly in combustion engines has been identified as a highly promising alternative fuel source for the shipping industry to achieve this objective as other existing options such as battery or hydrogen power are unable to handle the power requirements to push large and heavy vessels across oceans.
“To succeed in decarbonizing shipping, low-emission technologies must be brought to commercial scale within the next decade. It is imperative that carriers are incentivized to choose low-carbon fuel,” said Magnus Krogh Ankarstrand, President of Yara Clean Ammonia.
The first green shipping route between Norway and Germany to be taken by Yara Eyde.
Yara International which is pioneering this initiative is a chemical manufacturing company specialising in crop nutrition and agricultural solutions and Yara Clean Ammonia is a subsidiary company specialising in global ammonia production, distribution, and trade. By bringing its expertise together with North Sea Container Line, a leading container operator in Norway, the partnership is expected to focus primarily on developing clean ammonia-powered container ships to drastically reduce emissions in the shipping industry.
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