Project

Ammonia as a Fuel for Ships: Ecological Impact and Risks of a Spill at Sea

Motivation:

Ammonia, being carbon-free, presents a promising avenue to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) and is proposed as a zero-carbon fuel for ships and other maritime applications now mainly based on diesel and fuel oil. The NWO project AmmoniaDrive studies how ammonia can be used as an energy-efficient, clean, affordable, and especially, safe fuel for ships. However, ammonia’s corrosiveness and high toxicity raise significant societal concerns regarding the safety of people, marine life, and ecosystems. Therefore, within the context of AmmoniaDrive, the motivation of this Ph.D. study is to assess the ecological impact and potential risks associated with an ammonia spill at sea. Additionally, the study explores potential mitigation strategies to minimize impact and risk at sea. How the risk of accidental spills and human exposure can be minimized is part of a parallel Ph.D. study at TU-Delft.

Aim & objectives/research question

This research aims to understand what ecological impact and risk exist for marine life in air and water during the spill of large and smaller volumes of ammonia at sea.

Research questions:

  1. To what extent do environmental conditions affect the exposure characteristics (e.g., dispersion, magnitude) of ammonia accidentally released into the air or seawater, and what organisms are potentially exposed and in what situations?
  2. What physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms and resultant products (direct and indirect) are critical in assessing the risk to marine life during a spill?
  3. What are safe levels of ammonia and the secondary stressors for marine organisms in water and air?
  4. What are the main toxicological and ecological risks for marine life (in air and water) and what are the characteristics of the most sensitive marine areas/ecosystems?
  5. What are potential mitigation measures to reduce the toxicological and ecological risk and impact of a spill of ammonia at sea?

Methodology

The assessment of the volumes of ammonia potentially being released in cases of accidental spills will be done in a Ph.D. study at TU-Delft as part of the same project. Our research combines literature study, laboratory, and mesocosm experiments to assess the potential impact of such spills. Specifically, secondary data on ammonia dispersal using models are combined with primary data on the transformation of elevated ammonia levels in seawater to explore the fate of ammonia in air and water. Toxicological data from both literature and actual laboratory tests with invertebrates are combined to derive NOEC for ammonia and other critical stressors. Laboratory and mesocosm experiments are used to explore the ecological impact of ammonia on simple and complex community structures. All these data are combined to perform a risk assessment for ammonia spills at sea. Potential ecological impact and risk mitigation strategies are developed and where necessary, tested to determine effect on risk reduction.

https://www.nwo.nl/onderzoeksprogrammas/perspectief/perspectief-toekenningen/ammoniadrive

https://www.tudelft.nl/innovatie-impact/innovation-projects/projects-2022/ammonia-drive