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Hartmann
Ammonia champion
Alfred Hartmann is pioneering the industry’s energy transition
The ammonia as fuel of the future bandwagon leapt forward in March with news Dutch fuel provider OCI had signed a memorandum of understanding with engine manufacturing giant MAN Energy Solutions and Germany’s Hartmann Gas Carriers, under which OCI intends to charter ammonia carriers built, owned and operated by Hartmann and its commercial arm, GasChem Services. These new ships will feature ammonia-fuelled engines designed by MAN.
“The partnership aims to propel the commercialization of ammonia-fueled vessels and accelerate the energy transition and decarbonization of the shipping industry,” the three companies stated in a release.
Compared to hydrogen and LNG, ammonia is widely used and easier to store with extensive global distribution and storage infrastructure in place, OCI claimed. Converting all long-distance shipping fuel to ammonia would require approximately 750m to 900m tonnes of ammonia annually by 2050, which is four to five times the current total global ammonia production, according to data from OCI.
Captain Alfred Hartmann, chairman of the supervisory board of the Hartmann Group as well as president of the German Shipowners’ Association , says his company convinced of the opportunities that ammonia-fuelled vessels will offer to the environment.
“Ammonia is one of the most promising carbon-neutral fuels for the future of the industry,” Hartmann tells Maritime CEO.
“At the moment,” he continues, “it is mostly obtained from natural gas. However, the goal must be to produce green ammonia only by using renewable energy sources like wind, solar or hydro power.”
In the long term, green ammonia will enable shipping to reduce its carbon emissions significantly − to nearly zero, Hartmann believes.
“It’s still a long way to go from here, for example when it comes to infrastructure, but fuels like ammonia pave the way for the sustainable energy transition in the shipping industry,” he says.
With his German shipowners hat on, Hartmann is optimistic that the nation’s shipping community has now finally passed the worst of the downturn that saw so many bluechip names wiped off the map over the past decade.
“We have largely put the crisis that has preoccupied us since 2009 behind us and, in many segments, we have surprisingly also navigated through the pandemic unscathed so far,” Hartmann says, concluding: “We have kept sailing, and we have delivered in the truest sense of the word.” ●
Spot on Hartmann Group
Established in 1818 and involved in shipowning and shipmanagement, the Hartmann fleet today is in excess of 150 vessels, a mix of gas tankers, product tankers, bulk carriers, container vessels, MPPs and cement carriers.
