Australian mining giant Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) plans to begin converting its fleet of eight VLOCs to run on ammonia by 2027.
The ambitious goal was revealed by Andrew Hoare, head of shipping at energy transition affiliate Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), at the Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration’s conference held during Singapore Maritime Week.
FMG first announced plans to retrofit its fleet of ore carriers to use green ammonia as a fuel in 2021, but at the time provided few other details on how it intended to accomplish this.
Hoare took the opportunity to update conference delegates on the project, saying FFI has developed the first engine testbed for burning ammonia for propulsion in a four-stroke engine.
“And we did that well ahead of our peers,” he claimed.
The engine used in the testbed is a Cummings KTa50 diesel engine, the same type fitted in the 3,100-dwt platform supply vessel FFI Green Pioneer (ex-MMA Leveque, built 2010). FFI bought the ship in 2022 and is converting it into an ammonia dual-fuel demonstrator vessel that is due to begin operational trials this year.
Explaining the rationale behind the choice of ammonia, Hoare said vessel emissions account for 10% of FMG’s Scope 1 emissions. Each year, the company moves 200m tonnes of iron ore globally, mainly from Australia to China, but also more recently, from Gabon, in West Africa.
“As a group, we want to show the world that we are absolutely ahead of all industrial groups in decarbonising our activities, and we do not talk of net anything, we talk of absolutes,” he said.
“We’re committed to decarbonising our Scope 1 and 2 operations by 2030.
“We have certain views about LNG and methanol as perhaps not being part of the full journey towards decarbonisation.”
“Three years ago we had a project to build a fleet of LNG-powered VLOCs. We realised that this was completely the wrong thing to be doing, because LNG, in our view, is not the appropriate fuel due to the LNG slip.”
Hoare noted that while manufacturers are “pumping out methanol engines”, there is still uncertainty over enough supply to fuel those engines.
That left ammonia as the prime choice.
“Our group has about 80 projects under development for developing hydrogen and by definition, green ammonia as a carrier. Five of these will achieve final investment decision this year in Australia, Norway, North Africa, the US and South America,” Hoare said.
“Ultimately, we want to be there to provide the green molecule both to the power sector, and increasingly to provide the ammonia to support the shipping market as well.”
FMG’s VLOCs provide about 12% of the miner’s total shipping requirements.
They were delivered from China’s Yangzijiang Shipyard and Guangzhou Shipyard International between 2017 and 2018.
