NYK to modify LNG-fuelled tugboat to ammonia-fuel specs

Japanese shipping company NYK has concluded a contract with Keihin Dock Co. to modify an LNG-fuelled tugboat to ammonia-fuel specifications, it said on August 9.

Tugboat Sakigake, operated in Tokyo Bay by NYK Group company Shin-Nippon Kaiyosha Corporation, will be converted to operate on ammonia by 2024.

The project was initiated in October 2021 by NYK and IHI Power Systems Co. and adopted as part of the Green Innovation Fund project within Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation for the development of vessels equipped with a domestically produced ammonia-fuelled engine, NYK said.

NYK will begin modification in 2023 with the aim of realizing demonstration operations in the port of Yokohama in 2024.