Ian TaylorNYK has announced today (23 August) that work on the ammonia-fuelled tugboat Sakigake has been completed and the NYK Group company Shin-Nippon Kaiyosha will now use the vessel in in Tokyo Bay over a three-month demonstration period.
Described by the shipowner as ‘the world’s first ammonia-fuelled vessel for commercial use’, the vessel has been developed by NYK in association with IHI Power Systems and ClassNK and was a Green Innovation Fund Project initiated in October 2021 under Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) to develop vessels equipped with domestically produced ammonia-fuelled engines.
According to NYK: ‘The [Sakigake’s] predecessor, the LNG-fuelled tugboat of the same name, was completed in August 2015 as the first LNG-fueled vessel in Japan. After eight years of tug service in Tokyo Bay, the vessel was docked at the NYK Group’s Keihin Dock Co. Ltd. for conversion to an ammonia-fuelled vessel. The main engine, etc., were replaced with ammonia-fuelled ones, and sea trials were conducted using ammonia as fuel. The completed vessel has taken the name Sakigake, hoping it will be a pioneer of ammonia-fueled vessels, just as it was of LNG-fuelled vessels.’
Image: NYK
Rhys Berry
Ariane Morrissey
