据12月7日offshore energy消息：日本计划将氨作为燃料引入航运业，并在21世纪20年代末将其商业化，作为其到2050年实现碳中和努力的一部分。
该解决方案在日本燃料氨理事会今天的会议上进行了研究。该理事会由来自公共和私营部门的代表组成，以解决引入和扩展使用氨作为燃料的技术和其他供应链障碍。另外，委员会还希望将氨气引入火力发电的燃料混合物中。
氨预计将在2020年末作为商业燃料引入火力发电和航运，预计到2030年左右将大量使用。
氨加入了太阳能、风能、地热、水能和生物质能等可再生能源的行列，因为它即使在燃烧时也不排放二氧化碳。由于它已经主要用于化肥应用，因此已经具备了国际贸易基础设施，另外，在它作为燃料广泛使用之前，还需要解决一些技术问题，包括安全增压、液化和燃烧。
在大气压下，氨可以以液体的形式储存在较高温度下。然而，它的能量密度低于石油，这意味着船只消耗的燃料量是石油的五倍。根据国际海运公会的数据，氨产量将不得不增加4.4亿吨，是目前产量的三倍多，需要750吉瓦的可再生能源。
绿氨已被确定为最有前途的低排放燃料之一，国际能源信息署预测，到2070年，其运输用途将达到1.3亿吨，是2019年全球肥料生产的两倍。
理事会同意对氨的采购进行可行性研究，以建立解决方案的供应链，并开展示范项目以促进使用氨作为燃料，考虑热电联产和在工业炉、船舶等中的使用。
第一次可行性研究预计将看到该国燃煤火力发电厂开始燃烧20%的氨。
今年8月，日本航运公司日本邮船，日本造船海洋联合公司(JMU)和ClassNK签署了一个联合研发协议，将一艘以氨为燃料的氨气运输船(AFAGC)商业化，该船将使用氨作为主要燃料，此外还有一艘氨浮动储存和再气化驳船(A-FSRB)。
目前，氨的大型海上运输主要采用多用途液化石油气船。
NYK表示:“预计使用氨作为海洋燃料，将有助于远洋船舶早日实现零排放。”
冯娟 摘译自 offshore energy
原文如下：
Japan pushes ahead with ammonia as a shipping fuel of the future
Japan is planning to introduce ammonia as fuel into the shipping industry and make it commercially available in the late 2020s as part of its efforts to go carbon-neutral by 2050.
The solution was examined at today’s meeting of the fuel ammonia council, which was established back in October. The council is made up of representatives from the public and private sectors to solve technical and other supply-chain hurdles to the introduction and expansion of using ammonia as a fuel.
The council also wants to introduce ammonia into the fuel mix for thermal power generation.
“Ammonia is expected to be introduced as fuels Ammonia joins renewable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, and biomass, as it doesn’t emit CO2 even when burned.
Being already mainly used for fertilizer applications, it has an international trading infrastructure in place, however, there still a need for some technical issues to be resolved, incuding safe pressurization, liquefaction and combustion before it can become widely used as a fuel.
Ammonia can be stored in higher temperatures in a liquid form under atmospheric pressure.
However, it is less energy-dense than oil, meaning ships will consume up to five times as much fuel by volume. Ammonia production would have to rise by 440 million tonnes – more than treble current production – requiring 750 gigawatts of renewable energy, according to the International Chamber of Shipping..
What is more, since it is less flamable it needs a pilot fuel for combustion.
Green ammonia has been identified as The council agreed to carry out a feasibility study The first feasibility study is expected to see the country’s coal-fired thermal power plants start burning 20% of ammonia.
The shipping industry majors are moving forward with their research and development efforts.
In August, Japanese shipping company NYK Line, shipbuilder Japan Marine United Corporation (JMU), and ClassNK signed a joint R&D agreement for the commercialization of an ammonia-fuelled ammonia gas carrier (AFAGC) that would use ammonia as the main fuel, in addition to an ammonia floating storage and regasification barge (A-FSRB).
Large-scale marine transportation of ammonia is currently carried out by multipurpose liquefied petroleum gas vessels.
“It is expected that the use of ammonia, which is the cargo, as a marine fuel will contribute to the early realization of zero emissions for oceangoing vessels,” NYK said.
Apart from AFAGC, the companies will be engaged in the R&D of a barge that is equipped with a floating storage and regasification facility exclusively for ammonia for the first time in the world.