Why the Shipping Industry Is Betting Big on Ammonia

[thackney]

Why the Shipping Industry Is Betting Big on Ammonia
https://spectrum.ieee.org/transportation/marine/why-the-shipping-industry-is-betting-big-on-ammonia
23 Feb 2021

There’s a lot to like about ammonia. This colorless fuel emits no carbon dioxide when burned. It’s abundant and common, and it can be made using renewable electricity, water, and air. Both fuel cells and internal combustion engines can use it. Unlike hydrogen, it doesn’t have to be stored in high-pressure tanks or cryogenic dewars. And it has 10 times the energy density of a lithium-ion battery.

For all these reasons, ammonia (NH3) is gaining favor in the global shipping industry, a multitrillion-dollar machine in need of cleaner fuels to power the freighters and tankers that haul manufactured goods and bulk materials across the ocean. Shipping companies seek climate-friendlier alternatives to petroleum that can propel their behemoth vessels for days or weeks at sea and still leave room on board for cargo.

Maritime shipping contributes nearly 3 percent of annual carbon-dioxide emissions, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations body that regulates the industry. In 2018, delegates agreed to reduce emissions by 50 percent from 2008 levels by 2050. Meeting that target will require swift and widespread development of diesel-fuel alternatives and new designs for freighters, tankers, and container ships.

Shipowners and industry analysts say they expect ammonia to play a pivotal role in decarbonizing cargo ships. But there’s a crucial caveat: No vessels of any size today are equipped to use the fuel. Even if they were, the supply of renewable, or “green,” ammonia produced using carbon-neutral methods is virtually nonexistent. Most ammonia is the product of a highly carbon-intensive process and is primarily used to make fertilizers and chemicals....

[Hoodat]

Why not simply use the methane needed to produce the ammonia?

[Bigun]

Why not simply use the methane needed to produce the ammonia?

FAR too simple!

[thackney]

Why not simply use the methane needed to produce the ammonia?

In spite of this not needing the cryogenic tanks, I would think for a ship it would still be less money in the long run to use the methane.

[Hoodat]

If you have to leave a carbon footprint, the best place to do it would be over the ocean.  Ammonia should be reserved for urea production, a truly carbon-neutral fertilizer.

[Sled Dog]

Hmmm...

...not to mention extremely poisonous...

...if an ammonia fueled ship exploded in the harbor, would all the windows be cleaned before they were shattered?

Anyway, this sounds like yet another Green Boondoggle.   How much taxpayer money will be poured into this, and how many Solyndra's can dance on the balding head of a senile Usurper?

[Smokin Joe]

We used to use high strength ammonia to develop diazo process prints of well logs.

Anyone who caught a snoot full of that was miserable for a while, and low level exposure would make your throat and lungs raw.

I would not want to be around fueling or a fuel leak without some serious PPE.

[Hoodat]

We used to use high strength ammonia to develop diazo process prints of well logs.

Anyone who caught a snoot full of that was miserable for a while, and low level exposure would make your throat and lungs raw.

I would not want to be around fueling or a fuel leak without some serious PPE.

It will also kill your sense of smell just like H₂S.

(btw, if you ever get the chance, drop a dollar bill into a bucket of cold liquid ammonia and see what happens.)

[Fishrrman]

Hoodat wrote:
"btw, if you ever get the chance, drop a dollar bill into a bucket of cold liquid ammonia and see what happens."

I don't think I'll ever have the opportunity to do that.
So... what happens...?

[Hoodat]

I don't think I'll ever have the opportunity to do that.
So... what happens...?

It shrinks. 

I once spent five months commissioning a new ammonia plant (with no boiler).  One of the supervisors showed us a shrunken bill and gave us the opportunity to have ours shrunk.  I took a dollar bill, wrote on it, and handed it over.  The next day, he gave it back to me about one-half its normal size.

[Elderberry]

Shrinking paper money with ammonia


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap4GuZffrvg

[GtHawk]

It shrinks. 

I once spent five months commissioning a new ammonia plant (with no boiler).  One of the supervisors showed us a shrunken bill and gave us the opportunity to have ours shrunk.  I took a dollar bill, wrote on it, and handed it over.  The next day, he gave it back to me about one-half its normal size.

Seems to me that the people pulling Biden's puppet strings are shrinking my dollars fast enough without me helping.

[roamer_1]

We used to use high strength ammonia to develop diazo process prints of well logs.

Anyone who caught a snoot full of that was miserable for a while, and low level exposure would make your throat and lungs raw.

I would not want to be around fueling or a fuel leak without some serious PPE.

Not my job... I get a nosebleed just from a dirty chicken coop. 

[Sled Dog]

It shrinks. 

I once spent five months commissioning a new ammonia plant (with no boiler).  One of the supervisors showed us a shrunken bill and gave us the opportunity to have ours shrunk.  I took a dollar bill, wrote on it, and handed it over.  The next day, he gave it back to me about one-half its normal size.

Jimmy Carter made all the dollars shrink and didn't use poison gas.   

[Elderberry]

I was always fascinated with the "IcyBall" but never got around to building one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icyball

Icyball is a name given to two early refrigerators, one made by Australian Sir Edward Hallstrom in 1923, and the other design patented by David Forbes Keith of Toronto (filed 1927, granted 1929), and manufactured by American Powel Crosley Jr., who bought the rights to the device. Both devices are unusual in design in that they did not require the use of electricity for cooling. They can run for a day on a cup of kerosene, allowing rural users lacking electricity the benefits of refrigeration.

The Crosley Icyball is as an example of a gas-absorption refrigerator, as can be found today in recreational vehicles or campervans. Unlike most refrigerators, the Icyball has no moving parts, and instead of operating continuously, is manually cycled. Typically it is charged in the morning, and provides cooling throughout the heat of the day.

Absorption refrigerators and the more common mechanical refrigerators both cool by the evaporation of refrigerant. (Evaporation of a liquid causes cooling, as for example, liquid sweat on the skin evaporating cools, and the reverse process releases much heat.) In absorption refrigerators, the buildup of pressure due to evaporation of refrigerant is relieved not by suction at the inlet of a compressor, but by absorption into an absorptive medium (water in the case of the Icy Ball).

The Icyball system moves heat from the refrigerated cabinet to the warmer room by using ammonia as the refrigerant. It consists of two metal balls: a hot ball, which in the fully charged state contains the absorber (water) and a cold ball containing liquid ammonia. These are joined by a pipe in the shape of an inverted U. The pipe allows ammonia gas to move in either direction.

How-To: Build your own IcyBall

https://makezine.com/2009/08/01/how-to-build-your-own-icyball/

Building Your Own Larry Hall Icyball

http://crosleyautoclub.com/IcyBall/HomeBuilt/HallPlans/IB_Directions.html