Safety of ammonia on board

The Safety of Ammonia on board (SAMM) project has been built on current knowledge about ammonia safety and aimed to increase the understanding of barriers for using ammonia as a fuel for shipping. The project has also contributed to identifying future areas where more research is needed. 

SAMM was carried out together with a reference group and a group of researchers from RISE, covering a wide spectrum of the area with alternative fuels, shipping, regulations, and human factors. The project was mainly carried out during 2023 and finalized in April 2024. 

From the interviews conducted during this project, all interviewees mentioned training and knowledge as the most important aspects to safely implement ammonia as a ship fuel. The needs for training and education exist for all stakeholders, from seafarers aboard the ammonia fuelled ship, to bunkering personnel, to emergency responders. 

The workshop results in this study are in line with the reference literature. The main result from the workshop was a list of prioritized tasks that have to be taken care of to enable bunkering of ammonia in the Port of Gothenburg. The participants voted on the safety activities they had posted on the road map, and the highest voted activities were the following, without internal prioritization: 

Creation of an international bunkering standard 

Bunker station equipment and layout on board 

Risk assessment (including HAZIDs and HAZOPs) 

Public communication plan 

Personnel competence, experience and training (including emergency response plans) 

Sharing of accident/incident knowledge 

Authors Anna Karlsson, Oskar Grönlund, Julia Burgén, Joanne Ellis, Chen Huang, Tobias Olsson, Stina Andersson RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB 

In cooperation with A reference group including representatives from Bureau Veritas, Swedish Transport Agency, Port of Gothenburg, IUMI, Cefor, Afry, Wärtsilä and BlueTack.