Zhoushan Completes World's First Ship-to-Ship Green Ammonia Bunkering Operation

On October 13, at the Zhoushan anchorage in China's Zhejiang province, the vessel Shenghang Yongle carried out the world's first ship-to-ship green ammonia bunkering operation. The vessel, described as the first ship dedicated to the supply of liquid ammonia, transferred 1,000 tonnes of green ammonia to a 210,000-dwt bulk carrier powered by this fuel, identified by Baird Maritime as the Belgian-flagged Mineral Europa.

The operation was carried out jointly by China Energy Engineering Corporation (CEEC), the Belgian shipping group CMB.TECH Maritime Group, and the Chinese company Jiangsu Andefu Energy Technology. Li Jingguang, Party Secretary and Chairman of CEEC Hydrogen Energy, stated that the milestone represents the first full-chain integration of green ammonia as a marine fuel, covering production, storage and transport, supply, and application, and that it marks the Chinese green ammonia industry's shift from the demonstration phase to regular commercial operation.

The green ammonia used came entirely from CEEC's Songyuan hydrogen industrial park, known as 'Qingqing No.1', in Jilin province, in northeastern China. From Songyuan it was transported by road in tanker trucks to Andefu's storage depot at the port of Nanjing, from where it was loaded onto the Shenghang Yongle to be shipped to Zhoushan and finally supplied to the bulk carrier through the ship-to-ship operation at the anchorage.

The Shenghang Yongle is a gas carrier with a capacity of 5,546.8 cubic meters, built by China Merchants Jinling Dingheng Shipbuilding, owned by Nanjing Shenghang Shipping and operated by Jiangsu Andefu Energy Development, which was converted to add the function of supplying ammonia as fuel through ship-to-ship bunkering, while retaining its original role of transporting liquid ammonia. The China Classification Society (CCS) granted it a class certificate for ammonia fuel bunkering, the first issued to a vessel in operation, and both the CCS and China's Maritime Safety Administration described the operation as the first commercial ship-to-ship green ammonia bunkering operation.

After receiving the fuel, the bulk carrier will depart from Zhoushan bound for Australia across the Pacific Ocean to begin commercial service. According to Li Jingguang, the operation also builds experience for future milestones, such as the commissioning of ammonia storage tanks at the port of Panjin, in Liaoning province, and the development of a large-scale commercial logistics system for direct marine supply of green ammonia, in a context where demand for zero-carbon fuels in maritime transport is moving toward becoming a market necessity in light of the International Maritime Organization's net-zero emissions targets.