Cleans floors. . .and can be turned into fuel

By Gary S. Vasilash

Most people are probably familiar with ammonia in its addition to household cleaning products—the ones that really smell, well, like something.

The biggest use on ammonia is not to help keep surfaces clean but in fertilizers, which accounts for about 90% of its use.

But a company named Amogy, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York has another idea for where ammonia can be used: as a marine fuel.

But not as just any marine fuel, but one that is carbon-free.

To prove its viability Amogy retrofitted a tugboat built in 1957 with it ammonia-to-electrical power system.

The tugboat, renamed the NH₃ Kraken, was then sent out on a voyage on a tributary of the Hudson River.

The name of the vessel, incidentally, is predicated on the chemical formula of ammonia.

The way its system works is that it cracks the nitrogen from the hydrogen, with the latter then being used in a fuel cell that generates electricity that powers the boat.

Further underscoring its environmental correctitude, green ammonia—made with renewable energy—was used on the NH₃ Kraken.

According to Seonghoon Woo, CEO and co-founder of Amogy, “Ammonia is the world’s second most produced chemical, with around 20 million tons moving around the globe through 200 ports per year.”

Which sounds as though there is something of a nautical infrastructure, or at least one that could probably be brought up fairly quickly.

That said, the International Maritime Organization is targeting net-zero emissions by 2050, so there’s evidently some time.