Finland's Wartsila has passed another milestone on the road to zero-emissions shipping by successfully testing hydrogen and ammonia fuels in its engines.
The technology company has been trialling the bunkers at its laboratory in Vaasa, Finland.
Wartsila said the full-scale engine tests have been "very encouraging", with one engine performing very well when running on a fuel with 70% ammonia content at a typical marine load range.
Trials were also completed successfully on another engine using pure hydrogen.
"Testing will continue throughout the coming years with the aim of defining the most feasible internal combustion engine-based solutions for power plant and marine applications, thereby enabling the transition to a decarbonised future with green fuels," the company said.
Wartsila also expects to have an engine running on an ammonia blend ready this year.
A pure ammonia propulsion system should be available in 2023.
Milestone moments
Hakan Agnevall, chief executive of Wartsila, said: "These are milestone moments in Wartsila’s transition to future fuels.
"Society will have to invest significant amounts into the infrastructure needed to develop green hydrogen, but those investments require market-ready engines that can run on the fuel once it is readily available."
Wartsila is also developing ammonia storage and supply systems as part of the European Union's ShipFC project.
"The company has already gained significant experience with ammonia from designing cargo-handling systems for LPG vessels, many of which are used to transport ammonia," the organisation said.
Four-stroke test
Wartsila will begin testing ammonia in a marine four-stroke combustion engine together with Knutsen OAS, Repsol Norway and Equinor at the Sustainable Energy Catapult Centre in Stord, Norway, as part of the Demo2000 project.
The company added that hydrogen can be used as a fuel in its existing state or as a raw material for producing a wide range of future fuels, including ammonia and synthetic methane.
Wartsila's engines can currently run on natural gas, biogas, synthetic methane or hydrogen blends of up to 25% hydrogen.
Mikael Wideskog, director of sustainable fuels and decarbonisation at Wartsila Marine Power, said the company is "united in its aim of limiting climate change to below two degrees [Celsius], and the development of engines capable of running on future fuels is crucial to that".
"Our successful engine testing will help us to consider a variety of future fuels and determine the optimum use case for each sustainable fuel," he said.
