Feasibility assessment of a container ship applying ammonia cracker-integrated solid oxide fuel cell technology

The maritime industry has entered its pathway of decarbonization. To achieve the IMO's ambitious goals of an absolute emissions reduction of 50% by 2050, and a 70% carbon intensity reduction by 2050 compared to the 2008 level, various options for the adoption of technologies and alternative fuels are considered by the market stakeholders.Ammonia, one of the most promising alternative marine fuels has long been considered to reduce carbon emissions. And solid oxide fuel cell is expected to transform ship propulsion technology in the future due to its high utilization of fuels. In this paper, a feasibility study is performed to assess the application of an ammonia cracker-integrated solid oxide fuel cell (hereafter as Ammonia SOFC) system on an ocean-going vessel through a detailed CAPEX, FuelEX, OPEX, Carbon tax, and carbon emission analysis. Comparison is made with direct ammonia, LNG and conventional fuels fired heat engines. The result concludes that it can be economically viable to apply to deep-sea shipping, compared to other marine fuels and propulsion technologies.