University of Nottingham and Aqsorption Limited KTP 24_25 R3

A company is building a chemical reactor that turns ammonia into high-pressure hydrogen gas, aiming to replace the diesel burned in ship engines. The problem is straightforward: the global shipping fleet runs on heavy fuel oil, a thick, dirty residue from crude oil refining that produces significant carbon dioxide, sulphur oxides, and particulate matter. Marine gas oil, a lighter but still fossil-based fuel, is also widely used. There is no easy drop-in replacement that provides the energy density and reliability ships need. This project tackles that gap by treating ammonia—a molecule made from nitrogen and hydrogen—as a hydrogen carrier. Instead of burning ammonia directly, the reactor cracks it apart to release pure hydrogen at high pressure, which can then power a fuel cell or a hydrogen-combustion engine. If the process works at scale, it could allow ships to run on a fuel that produces no carbon emissions at the point of use. The impact would be felt in global supply chains: container ships, tankers, and bulk carriers account for roughly three percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Replacing marine gas oil with ammonia-derived hydrogen would cut that share without requiring ships to carry bulky, high-pressure hydrogen tanks. The project is applied engineering, not fundamental science—it takes existing knowledge of surface chemistry and nanomaterials and embeds it into a commercial prototype.