Samsung Heavy wins certification for ammonia fuel VLAC

South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries announced on Wednesday that it obtained Approval in Principle (AIP) from Lloyd's Register for the design of an ammonia fuel cell-powered very large ammonia carrier (VLAC) at Posidonia 2024 held in Athens, Greece.

Ammonia fuel cells operate on the principle of separating ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen through a high-temperature catalytic reaction, then supplying these to a fuel cell to produce electricity via a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen.

The ammonia fuel cell-powered VLAC, developed by Samsung Heavy Industries in collaboration with US fuel cell system developer Amogy Inc., is an environmentally friendly ship with zero emissions.

Both the main propulsion engine and the power generation engine can be replaced with fuel cells, eliminating the emissions of sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. The reduction in vibration and noise on the ship also leads to lower maintenance costs.

Samsung Heavy Industries received technical certifications for a 96,000-cubic-meter VLAC from Norway's DNV and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) locally, and for a 150,000-cubic-meter VLAC from the Korean Register (KR).

Samsung Heavy Industries has completed the development of various VLAC ship designs capable of navigating both the old Panama Canal (33 meters wide) and the new Panama Canal (55 meters wide), thereby meeting the increasing demand for ammonia transportation.

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com