NYK Group to forego ammonia-fuelled tug newbuild in favour of retrofit

In its AiP announcement in July 2022, NYK said the next stage of the project would be to award a construction contract to the shipyard and begin building the hull for a newbuild tugboat. NYK Line said it and partner IHI expected to introduce the first ’A-Tug’ as an operational demonstrator at the port of Yokohama, Japan in 2024.

International Tug & Salvage contacted NYK to clarify whether the project partners have decided to forego building an ammonia-fuelled tug from scratch in favour of retrofitting Sakigake to run on ammonia fuel.

"We have decided not to order a newbuild ammonia-fuelled tug at this time in the Green Innovation Fund Project of Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization," an NYK representative confirmed. "Sakigake is the only vessel planned for the project."

In October 2021, NYK and IHI Power Systems were selected as part of a Japanese Government-backed Green Innovation Fund Project under the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization national research and development agency.

The terms of the project seek to fund the "development of ships equipped with domestically produced ammonia-fuelled engines," according to NYK.

In July 2022, ClassNK joined the project as classification society, and the project received a preliminary design AiP. 

Ultimately, the partners involved in the research, development and deployment project said they expect the ammonia-fuelled tug retrofit project to demonstrate the feasibility of using ammonia as a fuel on large tugboats to decarbonise maritime operations in ports and close to shore.

ClassNK said it has been involved in the project from the start to ensure crew safety, due to ammonia’s toxicity.

The Japanese classification society reviewed the design of A-Tug under the research and development segment of the project, and will continue to support the project as the certification body. ClassNK said it will work to provide appropriate standards for ammonia-fuelled ships through the expertise gained from the collaboration.

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