29 January 2024 (Lloyd's List) - OCEAN Network Express said it has received class approval in principle from DNV for an ammonia dual-fuelled boxship.

The design for a 3,500 teu vessel was jointly developed by ONE, Nihon Shipyard and classification society DNV as part of a joint development project established in late 2022.

ONE has a total of 12, 13,000 teu methanol dual-fuelled ships on order and the move to ammonia diversifies its green strategy.

Japan-based ONE has been studying the feasibility of ammonia as an alternative fuel and participated in a Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation-led ammonia bunkering pilot safety study.

"Ammonia is one of the primary focuses of our research because the fuel has a greater potential of generating lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional marine fuels," said ONE senior vice-president of corporate strategy and sustainability Koshiro Wake.

DNV Maritime Southeast Asia, Pacific and India regional manager Cristina Saenz de Santa Maria expressed confidence in ammonia's potential to help the industry decarbonise and its safe adoption with DNV class rules.

"We are grateful to our JDP partners for entrusting us with this pioneering project that will help the maritime industry to adopt ammonia as a marine fuel," she added.

The ONE Green Strategy has set a target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions, encompassing Scope 2 and 3 emissions, by 2050.

Much work remains to put ammonia and methanol bunker supply infrastructure in place at key ports and support the use of the new fuels.

Shipowners and operators have been moving towards ordering vessels, which are capable of using the new fuels, as the industry tries to meet its decarbonisation goals.