Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonization Hub and the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping have analysed the onboard safety risks of ammonia as a shipping fuel to a ship’s crew.

In Recommendations for Design and Operation of Ammonia-Fuelled Vessels based on Multi-disciplinary Risk Analysis, the organisations evaluated a theoretical arrangement for a container ship, tanker and bulker each with a different storage system (fully refrigerated, semi-refrigerated, and fully pressurized, respectively).

They used an iterative approach to risk assessment that led to conclusions such as having a single fuel preparation room divided into three separate spaces on a semi-refrigerated tanker reduces the individual risk per annum to engineering ratings by 56% risk relative to a base case.